Microbursts

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Fulita, an
atmospheric scientist from the University of Chicago, coined the term
downburst for a concentrated, sever downdraft that induces an outward burst
of damaging winds at the ground. He also introduced the term microburst for
a downburst with horizontal dimensions of 4km or less (Lester 11-4).
Microbursts form by the same process that produce the more common and less
intense down drafts; that is, by precipitation drag and cooling due to the
evaporation and melting of precipitation particles. In a microburst, the
downdraft intensifies with heavy rain and when dry air is mixed into the
downdraft causing evaporative cooling and great negative buoyancy. A
Microburst may occur in airmass, multicell, and supercell thunderstorms.
Isolated, single cell storms present a greater hazard to aviation; because,
they are common, small scale, rapidly developing, and they have strong
outflows (Lester 11-5). Larger muliticell storms are usually easier to
avoid because of there bigger size and ...

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or a tornado with a horizontal vertical axis, damaging
structures and uprooting trees inside a narrow swath. Because of the narrow
damage path which occurs with a roaring sound of a rotor microburst, it has
been identified as a tornado by mistake.
Microburst wind shears are short-lived (2 to 5 minutes), small
scale, intense downdrafts with vertical velocities that exceed 15 meters
per second. They are extremely dangerous to flight because their small
rapid changing wind pattern over short distances results in extreme
catastrophic performance loss. These microbursts may produce damaging winds
extending only 4.0 kilometers or less in the horizontal dimension. In spite
of its ...

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