Microburst
The other night I was in New York City and encountered what I immediately decided was a microburst.
We were walking (there’s a lot of walking in New York) to a restaurant, and it began to rain. It was a warm night, and the rain was soft and rather pleasant at first.
And then that suddenly changed. And when I write suddenly, I mean nearly instantaneously as well as violently.
It was almost exactly like this (video is from 2010):
Frightening, really. I wondered whether we were about to have a tornado.
The definition of a microburst:
A microburst is an intense small-scale downdraft produced by a thunderstorm or rain shower. There are two types of microbursts: wet microbursts and dry microbursts. They go through three stages in their cycle, the downburst, outburst, and cushion stages…
A microburst often has high winds that can knock over fully grown trees. They usually last for seconds to minutes.
The one I experienced lasted about 5 minutes or even less. But those were looooong minutes. There weren’t too many places to take shelter along the way, as most stores were closed except restaurants, and I was following along with a group that seemed doggedly determined to get to ours.
Great meal, though. Greek.
We get microbursts in ABQ. I’ve seen a five-minute hailstorm with big hailstones emerge seemingly from out of a nowhere on a sunny day.
First I ever heard of microburst was in connection to Delta Air Lines Flight 191 in 1985. I learned a few days later that my cousin — driving at that time for UPS — was one of the first people on the scene of the crash intending on rendering aid. Suffice to say he never wanted to talk about it.
Microbursts happen 2 to 3 times in my neck of the woods. They are dangerous and basically unpredictable. Fortunately, they are short lived.
parker, you interest me. I didn’t know about that facet of Iowan life.
We’ve had violent weather here around the Big Three-Ring Circus as well. (I just made up that name for it. Maybe it’s a two-ring circus, I don’t know. Does it matter?) There was one particularly violent rainstorm that destroyed what was left of my petunias this week.
Last week while we were in NYC, we got caught in a more normal 5-15 min thunderstorm, going to coffee shop (with AC on, too cold for wet folk).
Then a wonderful walk on High-Line (lower East Side) & Hudson Yards, after the rain.
I’ve been through a few of those on a sailboat at sea. We call them squalls. An experienced sailor sees them coming. Reduce sail and get your gear on.
I’ve been caught in some of those squalls both in south Texas and in Denver.
Seldom expected, never fun.
What intrigued me, though, was the guy crossing against the light, in the driving rain, and outside the crosswalk — who almost got hit — what in the world was he thinking!?!?
Strong enough to knock over the newspaper boxes!
AespoFan: “What intrigued me, though, was the guy crossing against the light, in the driving rain, and outside the crosswalk — who almost got hit — what in the world was he thinking!?!?”
Well, a friend of mine, who is a native-born New York, is fond of saying that she is a native New Yorker and as such it is her birthright to jay walk!
So, if it saves him a few steps, in the rain especially, then jay walk.
One of aviation’s constant challenges. The winds from a microburst can change the airspeed or descent rate of an airplane in a matte r of seconds. They usually occur along the edges of a thunderstorm. It’s well to be wary when landing at an airport with thunderstorms in the area.
Before the 1970s, when thunderstorms became better understood, they were called downdrafts. Pilots have always known thunderstorms were dangerous, but when microbursts became better understood, it was clear that even the edges of the storms were hazardous. Most airports now have multiple wind velocity and direction indicators so that the tower operators can observe if the wind is varying widely in velocity and direction within the airport boundaries. They can warn pilots and under certain scenarios can close the airport until the winds calm down a bit.
I used to live in Kansas and had a tornado go by less than a half mile by my house.
We live by God’s grace or chance. Terrifying, probably why we don’t think about it.
Watch a video of the earthquake and then tsunami that hit Japan and their nuclear reactors. To see the earth move like a wave?
Unsettling.