This is the scary moment a dust devil tornado whipped across a field in Thailand.

The whirlwind picked up clouds of dust on the farmland in the Phrom Phiram district of Phitsanulok province on Thursday (Mar 4).

Shocked onlooker Manoch Boonyoung recorded the rare weather phenomenon, which was caused by rapidly rising pockets of warm air.

He said: ‘The whirlwind appeared so quickly and started moving across the land. I followed it in my car but it disappeared suddenly.’

Dust devils are a type of whirwind tornado that form when the sun heats a patch of land and the air above becomes warmer and rises quickly.

Cooler air then moves into the low-pressure gap left by the rising warm air. The new drafts of cooler air also heat up, rise and the cycle continues, picking up dust and debris making the spiral visible.