microburst
noun
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Credit for the invention of the word microburst is generally given to tornado expert Tetsuya Theodore Fujita. Fujita first described these extremely intense wind patterns in 1974. He noted that microbursts are usually short-lived, lasting only 5 to 15 minutes, but that they are extremely dangerous, especially for aircraft, because they cause sudden unexpected changes in wind direction or speed. Since the mid-1970s, many airports have installed Doppler radar systems to help detect potentially deadly microbursts.
Examples of microburst in a Sentence
Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times, 7 Aug. 2024
Nick Walcott from East Windsor’s Public Works, rakes the last of the debris from a microburst from Friday’s thunderstorms along Tromley Rd.
—Aaron Flaum, Hartford Courant, 5 Aug. 2024
Torres, a forklift operator, was working the night shift at the Freeport warehouse on July 24 when a microburst hit.
—Jason Brow, Peoplemag, 30 July 2024
The Boeing 727 hit a microburst during a thunderstorm and crashed into a Kenner neighborhood, killing all 145 people on the plane and another eight on the ground, NTSB said.
—Carlie Kollath Wells, Axios, 9 July 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near microburst
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“Microburst.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/microburst. Accessed 19 Aug. 2024.
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