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Rhode Island
Dust devil is no match for R.I. youth soccer game – The Boston Globe
Leanne Walker said that what quickly came out of thin air and started as a curiosity-grabber turned slightly chaotic.
“People near it didn’t know how to react, with some running away and others running right into it, and some not reacting at all!” said Walker, who captured the dust devil on video. “What struck me most was how fast it was moving and how much debris it picked up.”
At one point, the spout picks up what appears to be a rectangular object, which Walker later discovered was a piece of sheet metal dancing in the dust devil’s swirling winds. Others mentioned seeing cars with minor damage. There were no reported injuries.
Stunned spectators can be heard asking, “Is that dangerous?”
The soccer players played on, and “the referees and players seemed almost completely unfazed,” Walker said.
“The video only captures part of it — the dust devil was actually on the ground for 1–2 minutes in total.“
“Dust devils are pretty common and most occur under calm and sunny conditions,” Globe meteorologist Ken Mahan said, adding that they form when “the high sun angle warms up one part of the ground faster than the surrounding area. Think of a large parking lot surrounded by grass, covered by trees.”
The resulting pockets of air rise rapidly, leaving a low-pressure area in the center, which “pulls in surrounding air that can spiral inward and create a vortex in the right environment,” according to Bryce Williams, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norton. “They are quite common, especially in open, flat areas during the warmer months.”
Most dust devils, he said, usually end up around 50 feet wide or less, but some can double that,” he said, and are on average 500 to 1,000 feet tall. “The winds are exceptionally localized and, while mostly harmless, can get as strong as 70 or 80 mph at times, lasting for a few minutes to about 10 minutes.” But those more powerful winds are rare, especially in the Northeast, Mahan said.
Although most of the time dust devils are more spectacle than threat, Williams said people should still steer clear of one if they do see one nearby.
“Although smaller than tornadoes and forming in a completely different way, dust devils can still be destructive, sometimes lifting debris into the air, creating dangerous projectiles,“ he said.
Mahan said they look dramatic, but they “can’t be warned” because they’re too small to be detected by weather radar. Mahan likened them to the “cousin to the spinning leaf mini-tornadoes we see in the fall.”
“Oftentimes, these remain invisible, but when they pass over a source of dust or dirt, like a ballfield, they become visible,” Williams noted.
It’s safe to say no red card was issued to the dust devil as it tried to stop Sunday’s soccer game.
Carlos Muñoz can be reached at carlos.munoz@globe.com. Follow him @ReadCarlos and on Instagram @Carlosbrknews.
Here’s how to submit a letter to the editor to the Providence Journal
Community opinions matter to us and we make sure there’s a space to hear what your neighbors are thinking. Here’s how to submit your own.
Journal Staff
Rhode Island Energy is currently installing advanced smart meters for all electricity customers. Clean energy and environmental advocates have championed advanced metering for decades because the systems enable incentives for conservation, solar integration and energy storage. The primary vehicle for realizing these benefits is Time-Varying Rates (TVR).
Unlike legacy meters, advanced meters track when electricity is used, not just how much is used. TVR encourages customers to shift heavy usage, like running a clothes dryer or charging an electric vehicle, to off-peak overnight hours when wholesale power is cheap and cleaner. This flattens the grid’s peak demand, brings down wholesale energy costs for everyone and reduces our reliance on polluting “peaker” power plants.
The Rhode Island Public Utility Commission (PUC) is charged with balancing the interests of utility customers with value to utility shareholders. It sets the formulas by which the utility is compensated.
The primary means the utility is compensated is based on a Return on Equity invested (ROE) that is predetermined by the PUC and currently set at 9.275%. Rhode Island Energy’s capital investments are funded through roughly 51% equity (shareholder capital) and 49% debt. For every $100 million the utility spends on infrastructure, about $51 million is financed via equity, allowing shareholders to collect an annual pre-tax profit of 9.275% on that portion, or roughly $4.73 million. The more the utility spends, the more their shareholders earn.
At a cost of over $188 million for the new meters, Rhode Island Energy shareholders will collect nearly $9 million a year in profit for 20 years from the equity portion of that investment alone, while also saving money on labor by eliminating the need for truck based drive-by meter readers.
But advanced metering was supposed to benefit ratepayers as well as the utility. Though the meter expenditures were approved by the PUC in 2023 and the meters installations are expected to be completed by the end of this year, it is expected to take until at least 18 months after the meter rollout is completed to implement the billing system infrastructure needed to enable Time-Varying Rates.
The upgrades that deliver more profit to the utility bottom line was fast tracked, while the investment needed to implement the primary benefits to ratepayers is being slow walked. Why weren’t the software upgrades and hardware deployment run in parallel?
Right now, the PUC is weighing a huge general rate case (Docket No. 25-45-GE). Rhode Island Energy has proposed aggressively hiking its profit margin, seeking to raise its ROE from 9.275% to 10.75% and expand its equity share from 51% to 57%.
In their 2022 advanced metering filing, Rhode Island Energy suggested the new infrastructure would yield $729 million in benefits over 20 years. So far, the utility is seeing plenty of that benefit on its bottom line, while ratepayers have mostly seen higher costs. The PUC should reject the utility’s requested rate increases, preserve the current rate structure, and insist that Time-Varying Rates be fully operational before any further rate changes are considered.
Fred Unger is a retired energy project developer and clean energy advocate based in Providence.
With wildfires becoming more frequent in Rhode Island, the state’s stockpile of specialty hoses to battle these blazes is being stretched thin.
Target 12 investigator Tim White got a firsthand look at the condition of the critical firefighting tools in Rhode Island and learned what’s being done to repair or replace them.
Watch the Target 12 exclusive Tuesday at 5 p.m. on WPRI 12.
Download the WPRI 12 and Pinpoint Weather 12 apps to get breaking news and weather alerts.
Watch 12 News Now on WPRI.com or with the free WPRI 12+ TV app.
Rhode Island Pride celebrated its 50th anniversary on June 20 as thousands gathered in downtown Providence for a day of performances, community, and celebration.
The event featured PrideFest with hundreds of community organizations, businesses, vendors, and performers, including headliners Adore Delano, Juicy Love Dion, and Paris Bennett, followed by Rhode Island Pride’s signature Illuminated Night Parade—one of the few Pride parades in the country to take place after dark.
Held under the theme “We Are the People,” this year’s event honored the activists who organized Rhode Island’s first Pride march in 1976 while recognizing the generations who continue to shape the state’s LGBTQ+ community today.
“Our founders understood something that remains true today: change happens when people show up,” said Rodney Davis, president of Rhode Island Pride. “Fifty years after that first march, more than 100,000 people stood together in downtown Providence to declare that we are still here, still visible, and still proud. ‘We Are The People’ is more than a theme—it is a recognition of every person who has contributed to this movement, from the pioneers who marched in 1976 to the young people who will shape the next 50 years.”
“This year demonstrated the incredible power of community,” added Jess Motyl-Szary, director of Rhode Island Pride. “Every volunteer, performer, sponsor, vendor, parade participant, and attendee helped create a space where people could feel welcomed, celebrated, and connected. The energy throughout the day and night was extraordinary, and it showed why Pride remains so important.”
Take a look at some of the most memorable moments from Rhode Island Pride’s 50th anniversary, courtesy of photographs from Ryan Welch, Kris Laliberte, Jordan Roberts, Kristen Beres, Brian Felsenthal, Leo Selvaggio, Willow Hicks, and Maxwell Snyder.
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