The Making of a Microburst
This video is a part of Animated Atmosphere, a suite of short videos produced by the UCAR Center for Science Education with FableVision Studios.
Microbursts are special types of storms. They last only a few minutes, but they’re very powerful storms you’ll want to know more about.
Transcript
A microburst is a powerful blast of air that drops
straight down from a thunderstorm and crashes into the ground.
They happen when the air inside a storm is colder and denser
than the surrounding air.
The heavy air whooshes down from the sky, sometimes carrying hail and rain.
When the air reaches the ground, it fans out in all directions.
Kind of like a heavy water balloon splashing onto the sidewalk!
A microburst only lasts 15 to 20 minutes, but the 100 mile per hour
winds are enough to knock over trees and blow roofs off houses.
The downward winds from microburst can make flying tricky.
So scientists developed ways of using radar to help predict
where air up high is starting to flow down as a microburst,
keeping planes and pilots safe.