High Noon Sunday.

On the beach, reading a book and literally out of the blue the still air turns incredibly turbulent.

Five little girls run out of the water screaming.

I quickly stand up and am hit by the beach cabana canopy behind me.

Our umbrellas take off and becoming flying projectiles  spinning over the turquoise ocean.

A literal cone of sand envelops me. I am completely coated in the grainy particles.

We push through the whirling dervish and chase down the airborne umbrellas…suddenly the world is tranquil again.

Stunned, the lifeguard careens over in his ATV yelling, “Are you alright?!”

I ask him what the hell happened.

We are informed that we were just hit by a sand tornado.

WTF!

After resuming normal programming I took to the Google Machine to research the incident.

In simple terms, a sand tornado is a small, spinning column of air that forms when the sun heats the sand intensely, then hot air near the surface rises quickly while cooler air rushes in and starts to spin.

Mayhem ensued. The spinning air picks up sand, towels, umbrellas and anything else in its path.

Unlike a real tornado it is much smaller and short-lived. It can be very localized which is why it felt like divine targeting while others nearby carried on eating their picnic lunches and basking in the sunshine.

What I experienced was essentially a tiny, heat-driven whirlwind with a flair for theatrical timing

The universe reminded me that sharks and jelly fish are more predictable than sand tornados.

In this chaotic world you should expect the unexpected even while lounging on the beach.