A family watched in amazement as a dust devil tornado whipped through their front yard.

The warm weather phenomenon was seen spinning furiously while collecting dried earth from the ground and sucking leaves into the vortex.

Resident Maren Bautista recorded the dust devil outside her home in the town of Cervantes in Ilocos Sur province, the Philippines on December 25.

She said: ‘This is the second time this has happened and we are still lucky because it didn’t grow and ruin our belongings.’

Dust devils are a type of whirlwind 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.