I think we in SC call those whirlwinds or dust devils.
New England has very few tornado's , when they or a flat line or burst hits it discombobulates us.
We had one come through here and uprooted trees, sent trees onto roofs and through windows, put a few homes off their foundations.
We lucked out on that both homes on each side of our home suffered damage as did homes in a direct line headed down to the beach 3 miles away.
Reminded me of a town down the road that has a public park that was hit and killed a few people and left the area with trees for acres that resembled being bombed.
Out of the blue these things happen, no warnings, cannot be tracked or expected.
Those in tornado country can expect one at any time but usually they have at least a 20 minute warning.
For us there is no warning of any kind to these strange happenings. We have days to prepare for a hurricane, ice storm or blizzard. We do get mild earth quakes from time to time but nothing like CA.
We get more flash flood warnings up here then other weather warnings. Have had a few towns flooded out but not to the extent of those in the Mid West.