Microbursts set wind records in Texas and Indiana this week
Thunderstorm microbursts caused big wind gusts as high as 111 mph at airports this week, and that might threaten all-time records. What are microbursts and what kind of damage can they cause?
Twice this week, a phenomenon known as a microburst has caused wind gusts at an airport to approach or exceed its all-time records. Microbursts, which occur during thunderstorms, are much more common than tornadoes.
What are microbursts?
Air cooled inside a thunderstorm can fall suddenly to the ground, spreading out in a circle around the storm and causing wind gusts over 100 mph, doing as much or more damage than lower-end tornadoes.
Damage from a microburst can look like tornado damage (NWS).
This phenomenon is called a downburst, and when the wind area is less than 2.5 miles across, it is called a microburst, a term coined by tornado researcher Dr. Ted Fujita, inventor of the Fujita Scale. Wet downbursts carry rain with the wind, while dry downbursts can be invisible.
An infamous plane crash at New York's Kennedy Airport on June 24, 1975, killed 113 people and was blamed on a downburst. The aviation industry used Fujita's research to protect the industry from future crashes caused by the phenomenon.
A wet downburst can be seen as a ball of rain descending from the sky (NWS).
An 84-mph wind gust at Indianapolis
Early Saturday morning, the Indianapolis Airport reported an 84-mph wind gust, likely due to a microburst. Several planes slid 6 inches, the NWS said. The NWS confirmed the gust and told AccuWeather it was the second-highest on record at the airport, tying the same reading in 1984 and only 1 mph lower than the all-time record of 85 mph in 2006.
Midland airport clocks a 111-mph wind gust
A similar event took place Tuesday when wind at the Midland, Texas, airport gusted to 111 mph from a dry microburst. If confirmed, the record would shatter the previous all-time record for the airport, 93 mph, set on June 27, 2007.
Power poles were knocked down and a tractor trailer was tipped over 17 miles to the southwest of the airport near Odessa, Texas, but no injuries were reported with either incident.
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