Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 14:01:16 -0700
Reply-To: Bill N <freeholder@STARBAND.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Bill N <freeholder@STARBAND.NET>
Subject: Re: Trip got interesting
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Re: Trip got interestingYou are probably right, and that was my first thought. It's just that it wasn't "micro." From reports I have been getting from my friends, neighbors, and clients, it was sort of a narrow wall of wind that seemed to move from NE to SW. It appears to have been at least 10 or more miles wide, and traveled at least 50 miles. People in Sulpher Springs Valley, where I live, and which is very open, watched it coming. It swept across the valley, and looked like a wall approaching. It passed any given spot very quickly, and nobody reported any rain with it. Very odd.
Bill
----- Original Message -----
From: T.
To: Bill N ; vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Bill,
You got there what we call a Microburst. It is an interesting, and isolated severe weather storm that is localized to a small spot, that may not even at times show up on radar. We get them now and then in Arizona. Nothing "unusual" - so to speak, other than that they are very powerful. I watched one rip a building apart and leave the buildings to either side untouched. Its almost like a tornado, but no funnel clouds. You were lucky it didn't get freaky on you and toss any vehicles around.
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At 12:44 PM -0700 8/12/02, Bill N wrote:
We were camping on Mt. Graham in SE Arizona this weekend when a very unusual event occured. There were 9 of us sitting around the campfire around 4 in the afternoon on Saturday. It was partly cloudy and calm. Within a 30 second period it went from calm to winds I would estimate at 70+ MPH, and there was no warning. We ran for our '81 Westy, and others ran for their vehicles. We heard trees cracking all around us.
Five minutes later, it was back to partly cloudy and calm. There was no rain associated with this, and the whole thing lasted a very short time. We hiked around taking stock and found that seven large ponderosa pines (2' or larger trunk) had blown down within 100' or our campfire, taking several smaller trees with them.
Although the poptop was up, and the sliding door was open the whole time, the van had no problems. The wind direction was from the rear, which I'm sure helped.
Any weather experts out there have any idea what causes this sort of thing? I am told by neighbors that a similar wall of wind blew through my home area (about 40 miles away) that same afternoon.
Bill in the Southwest
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Happy motoring!
Timothy in Phoenix,
84 Vanagon (named Sparkii)
69 Bus (named Buster)
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