Powerful winds called downbursts are not the same as a tornado, but the damage they cause can be similar — and can hit with little warning.
produced by a storm with strong downward-moving air, known as a downdraft. When the downdraft reaches the ground, it slams into the surface and spreads out, sending winds outward in all directions like a water balloon dropped from the sky.
Every storm has a downdraft which sends cold air toward the ground and along the surface, says Charles Kuster, a research meteorologist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla. But for that downdraft to create a downburst, it needs to reach a certain velocity. There are a few different thresholds in use, but a common indicator is wind speeds above 93 kilometers per hour , which is also the wind speed that merits a severe thunderstorm warning from the National Weather Service.
Downbursts can come in two varieties: microbursts, which affect an area smaller than 4 kilometers wide, and macrobursts, which affect a larger area.Downbursts need two things to form: a favorable storm environment and a strong cooling mechanism.
The cooling mechanism can take a few different forms. Melting hail or evaporating rain in the atmosphere can cool the surrounding air because those processes require energy. Djordje Romanic, an atmospheric scientist at McGill University in Montreal, likens this cooling effect to stepping out of a hot shower. “You run across the room to get your towel, and you’re cold, but you just took a warm shower,” he says.
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