A microburst, as depicted in this graphic, is known as a tornado in reverse that can occur when the updrafts of warm air in towering cumulonimbus thunderheads are so strong (50 mph and up) that they suspend water droplets and hail in a storm cell’s upper reaches.
The strongest gust of wind to hit Ocean City during last Friday morning’s thunderstorm was a quick blast of slightly less than 21 mph. That, at least, is the official wind speed recorded at the inlet by the NOAA weather station at Coast Guard Station Ocean City.
Nevertheless, something much different happened just 4 miles north on the bayside, where an exceptionally narrow pillar of wind five or even six times as strong blew the roof off a condominium at 53rd Street. Equally curious was that this shaft of air hit with such precision that only the corner units of the Bayspot condominiums suffered any damage.
How can this be, one might ask, that NOAA’s sensitive instruments down at the inlet failed to notice the hurricane-force occurrence at 53rd Street? Moreover, how could such a powerful wind not affect neighboring properties, such as Macky’s Bayside located immediately next door?
Chalk it all up to the vagaries of the weather phenomenon known as the “microburst,” which has been described as a tornado in reverse but is more scientifically explained by the National Weather Service as “a localized column of sinking air (downdraft) within a thunderstorm and is usually less than or equal to 2.5 miles in diameter.”
“How can this be, one might ask, that NOAA’s sensitive instruments down at the inlet failed to notice the hurricane-force occurrence at 53rd Street?” The answer is simple: Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.