Micro Bursts

That was impressive.
 
It's a phenomenal video. It occurred over Tucson, AZ in 2015.

The video is, however, a time lapse. While microbursts are very significant and quite dangerous, they aren't THAT fast.

The water is dropped a few thousand feet in a second of video. Were that true time, it would be falling at supersonic speeds. The speed of sound is about 1000 feet/sec.
 
That same system caused havoc at KCHD, 41 planes were damaged during the storm. Most were flipped over, pushed into other planes, or pushed into airport fences.
KNXV%20Chandler%20Airport%20storm%20damage2_1439386836931_22636132_ver1.0_640_480.jpg
 
CT4ME said:
That same system caused havoc at KCHD, 41 planes were damaged during the storm. Most were flipped over, pushed into other planes, or pushed into airport fences.
KNXV%20Chandler%20Airport%20storm%20damage2_1439386836931_22636132_ver1.0_640_480.jpg
Click to expand...

A classic case of a joint come from together happening.
 
Any of those KCHD planes tied down?
I would say less than 1/4 of the transients to KCDK do I see tied down.
Not wise.
 
The burst that started at 0:13 caught my attention.

Is there any information out there of what the measured wind velocity was?
 
Microburst event at KAFF in April 2014...

 
I had one experience at ATL landing an ATR-72 in a micro burst with a full passenger load. It was sporty for sure. I felt so bad about it I went to the Chief Pilot and discussed it with him. He was cool about it and asked if I learned anything, and boy, did I. Nothing to mess with.
 
I was at the airport in Austin MN when I was about 10 years old when a microburst hit.

My dad was working on something there and we were about to head home. I tried to push the small door open on the hangar door and couldn't. Wind was holding it shut.

A few seconds later the entire hangar door started to bow.

Looked for rope to try and secure the door then common sense set it. We knew something bad was about to happen and took cover in an old camaro that was parked in the corner of the hangar.

Couple more seconds and the entire 40 some foot door was ripped off and the roof collapsed.

Stearman was lifted out of the hangar and thrown several hundred yards. Just a ball of twisted airplane was all that was left.

The entire event lasted maybe 30 seconds. Destroyed the entire row of hangars and tossed airplanes everywhere.

Oddly enough all of the old motorcycles my dad had in the hangar remained standing on their kick stands with basically no damage.

The car that was parked on the upwind side of the hangar row also didn't have a scratch on it.

I was pretty shy of wind gusts for a few years after that.
 
MAKG1 said:
It's a phenomenal video. It occurred over Tucson, AZ in 2015.

The video is, however, a time lapse. While microbursts are very significant and quite dangerous, they aren't THAT fast.

The water is dropped a few thousand feet in a second of video. Were that true time, it would be falling at supersonic speeds. The speed of sound is about 1000 feet/sec.
Click to expand...

If it is the same lapse rate throughout then, once one sees the "normal" speed of cloud movement, downdraft, and then comes the microburst, I think we are getting a pretty good idea of the speed and violence of it.
 
I was home one summer evening a few years ago, the weather was typical Georgia in the summer, warm, hazy, and humid with some pop up showers. I wanted to take the dog for a walk, so I checked the radar, there was nothing showing up close by, so out we went. We got about two minutes down the road and a little rain started, so I turned us around towards home, We got maybe 30 seconds when the wind came up out of nowhere and the rain became intense. Within another 30 seconds, the air was white with wind driven rain, visibility was maybe 20 feet. The dog didn't want to walk into the rain, she kept turning her head away from the wind and rain, but I was determined to get her back in the house. After a minute or so of this, we were back on the driveway to my house, which is 120 feet long. When we got about halfway down, I started noticing debris on the ground, which became thicker as we got closer to the house. We finally got back in the garage and waited for things to calm down, which was only a few minutes. When the rain ended and I could finally see more than 25 feet, I could see that the storm had sheared off a pine tree that was about 75 feet from the house, shredded it, and deposited the remains on our driveway.

I've always been reluctant to fly in those sort of conditions since then. One of our hang glider pilots was killed a few years back by a storm that was hiding in the murk. They can form pretty much anywhere in those sort of conditions, and you can't see them in the haze until you're right on top of them, especially if you're headed towards the sun.
 
A few years ago I was riding my motorcycle across Nevada on US 50. It had been cloudy with showers all afternoon and a few distant t-storms. About 100 miles east of Carson City, I was riding along, the wind was light and then all hell broke loose. Within a few seconds the wind was screaming directly across the highway, dust and tumbleweeds were blowing and visibility was down to 20 yards. I estimated the wind at 50-60 knots and was fighting to maintain control and got blown off the road to the right. I managed to get stopped and get the sidestand down, and then just like that it was over and back to a light breeze.

I was standing there catching my breath when about 10 minutes later, I saw a column descending rapidly from the clouds, hit the ground and begin radiating outward. Here we go again, dust, tumbleweeds blasting outward in a circle. At that point I figured out they were microbursts and it was actually really cool to experience one.

What wasn't cool was the funnel cloud that started to form. As it formed, I'm looking around trying to decide if I get going and take the chance on riding through another microburst or find cover. No cover, nothing but a utility pole right next to me. Great. It's get electrocuted when the pole comes down or they find my bike in Carson City and parts of me in Austin.

Fortunately the funnel cloud petered out and it was back to decent riding weather.

I was on the side of the road for about 20 minutes. Only four vehicles went by and every one of them stopped and checked to see if I was broken down.

I would not want to be in a plane anywhere near a microburst - getting hit by one could easily be a death sentence.
 
Most non-aviation people that I have talked to that experienced a microburst usually think they just survived a tornado. And a microburst can be just as or more damaging.
 
We do them in the sim every six months.
They can crank them to any level they want, but "unsurvivable" isn't really training. They usually crank it just a notch down from that, which is still intense.
It really is good training, and if done correctly builds good CRM.
 
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