Home / Weather News /

Thunderstorm timelapse: Microburst caught in action

01:00 PM
August 26, 2023

Thunderstorm timelapse
Microburst caught in action

Settings for external content

Privacy policy

The phenomenon caught on camera shows a storm cloud essentially emptying: a microburst. What causes it?

In Arizona, a thunderstorm opened its floodgates. The video above shows how sudden heavy rain and hail falls from the cloud to the ground.

Downbursts often occur when there is a dry layer of air between humid air at higher altitudes. If a thunderstorm develops, some of the precipitation in this dry layer of air evaporates.

This creates a process of evaporative cooling, with the rate of evaporation increasing and the downdraft winds consequently strengthening.

downburst

The large core of rain and hail that the updraft had been holding in higher up in the cloud, then falls rapidly towards the ground. 

It drags a lot of cold air along with it, gaining speed as it travels downward, then deflecting and spreading outward rapidly once it hits the ground as squalls of strong winds.

They can often be confused with tornadoes, as the gusts can be just as strong and devastating, even up to 100 mph in severe cases! They are more common than tornadoes however, and form in different ways.

When the damaging winds of a downburst are confined to an area less than two and a half miles across its known as a microburst, otherwise it's a macroburst.

Weather & Radar USA editorial team
More on the topic
Waterspouts weatherradar.
Monday, May 26, 2025

They can be dangerous

Waterspouts possible, what are they?
Summer brings the heat and the water activities with it!
Monday, June 2, 2025

Bye, spring!

Meteorological summer is here!
Derecho iowa
Sunday, June 22, 2025

Stay severe weather-aware

What are derechos?
All weather news
This might also interest you
Track hurricanes with the WeatherRadar
Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Tips & tools

Be ready for tropical activity
Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Daily briefing

More heat records shattered
Monday, June 23, 2025

N.M. flash floods

Over half a million people at risk
All articles
Weather & Radar

www.weatherandradar.com

instagramfacebookthreadsContact uslinkList
Privacy policy | Legal info