Weather phenomenon - heat burst rolls through Nebraska town

[DogPoundPup]

Cozad residents woke this morning to a weather phenomenon as a heat burst rolled through town. Temperatures rose 20 degrees in a matter of minutes while winds reached speeds of 75 miles per hour.

Many had no idea what was happening. Mike Steinwart, Cozad Street Department, said it came quickly. "No warning, not even a whistle, I thought it was a tornado. The way people explained. I thought it was a tornado, but they say it was a heat burst."

Trees were thrown into houses and cars but no injuries were reported. There was at least one close call. Nancy Wurst said her son just missed injury as a tree crashed into his car. "He was about a minute from being in the car he was standing at the door getting ready to come outside to go to work. If that would have happened one minute later he could have been in the car."

The last heat burst in Nebraska was in hastings in 2oo6.
http://www.nebraska.tv/Global/story.asp?S=8563368

Temperatures rose 20 degrees in a matter of minutes while winds reached speeds of 75 miles per hour.
(from news video at the above link)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Whew!

Never heard of such a thing before. That would be very scary!

[oldtime dfl_er]

2. Wow

I've never heard of this either, what a frightening event!

[oldtime dfl_er]

3. Looks like it also happened in...drumroll...

Midland, Texas on June 18:

from the archives of http://www.mywesttexas.com/:

"On Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service in Midland conducted a damage survey of areas within the city of Midland affected by weather during the late evening of Monday, June 16, 2008. The damage survey focused on locations at and around the intersection of Loop 250 and Midland Drive, in northwest portions of the city of Midland.
Between Briarwood and Navarro Avenues along Midland Drive, 13 power poles were damaged to varying degees. A 62 mph wind was reported at Midland Airpark on the 11:25 pm CDT observation. However, damage to wooden poles along Midland Drive was indicative of winds in the 80 to 100 mph range."

http://www.mywesttexas.com/articles/2008/06/18/press_releases/doc485979d68cf3d941929916.txt

[jobycom]

5. If weird stuff can happen, it will happen in Midland. nt

[ORDagnabbit]

4. scalar? Haarp?

[jobycom]

6. This is an obvious cover story for an alien ship pulse engine blast.

Obvious. :smoke:

[kristopher]

7. My understanding of the Nebraska landscape is limited

But perhaps the explanation is this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foehn_wind