At 4:15 am on August 3rd Sioux Falls, South Dakota was experiencing a summer night with temperatures around seventy degrees Fahrenheit (about twenty-one degrees Celsius). Thirty minutes later it was one hundred one degrees Fahrenheit (thirty eight degrees Celsius). Those unfortuente enough to be outside during the night oven reported strong hot winds that knocked down power lines and trees. South Dakotans knew what happened when they heard the news. A heat burst occured.
A heat burst is not fully understood but what it is believed to be caused by air from higher parts of the atmosphere being forced down to Earth. They are extremely rare and most cases in the United States are found in the interior middle.
3 comments:
The temperature change you mentioned in Spearfish, SD, was caused by Chinook winds. They're pretty well understood, but do not really apply in non-mountainous (to be generous) Sioux Falls.
http://www.mountainnature.com/climate/Chinook.htm
Right you are as the Spearfish incident was caused by Chinook. Sioux Falls was the heat burst. Thanks Neil!
Heat Burst!? Robert Christopherson says there is no such thing!
What is this... political propaganda!?
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