Editing DnD Desert Raiders Campaign Natural Hazards (section)

==== Whirlwinds ====
The baking ground of the waste heats air above it very quickly, producing spinning winds of varying intensity).
When the weather is clear, the rapidly rising hot air forms a dust devil. This resembles a tornado but is smaller and relatively weak, with winds rarely exceeding 60 miles per hour. Still, winds that reach severe or windstorm speed are strong enough to deal damage (see Table 3-24: Wind Effects, page 95 of the Dungeon Master's Guide). At ground level, visibility is reduced to practically nothing, granting total concealment to creatures within.
A tornado is the most violent kind of mundane whirlwind, with winds that can exceed 200 miles per hour. It is very localized though - the widest tornado is less than a mile across, and most have a diameter of only a few hundred feet Tornadoes move relatively slowly across the landscape but can make sudden, erratic turns that are impossible to predict. They occur most often at the boundaries between waste environments and more temperate areas. A whirlwind spawned at the edge of a desert can move into the temperate region, or into the deep waste.
The most severe thunderstorms (roughly one in ten) also generate tornadoes. Even so, fewer than half of those whirlwinds pack winds above hurricane strength (75 to 174 miles per hour). For game purposes, assume one thunderstorm in twenty generates a tornado-force wind. In the heart of such a violent storm, visibility is reduced to zero (total concealment), and Spot, Search, and Listen checks are impossible, as are ranged weapon attacks, Refer to Storms, page 94 of the Dungeon Master's Guide for more information on these hazards.


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