downburst

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downburst

A local high-velocity downward movement of air mass flowing out of a thunderstorm. It is the chief cause of severe wind shear. The size of a downburst may vary from a ¼ mile to more than 10 miles. It can last from 5 to 30 minutes. The wind speed can go as high as 120 knots. It is potentially very dangerous, especially during the takeoff and landing phases.

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Downbursts include microbursts and macrobursts [45].

Dynamic responses and vibration control of the transmission tower-line system: a state-of-the-art review

But the density of surface-observation sites remains coarse relative to the scale of MCSs and especially to the scale of sub-MCS features (e.g., mesoscale convective vortices or macrobursts) known to be responsible for much of the most intense damage within bowing convective systems (Miller and Johns 2000; Miller et al.