microburst

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The Word of the Day for August 22 is:

microburst   \MY-kroh-burst\   noun 
     : a violent short-lived localized downdraft that creates extreme wind 
shears at low altitudes and is usually associated with thunderstorms

Example sentence:
     During thunderstorm season, microbursts as strong as 50 miles per hour can 
cause almost as much damage to crops and structures as a full-force hurricane.

Did you know?
     Credit for the invention of the word "microburst" is generally given to 
tornado expert Tetsuya Theodore Fujita. Fujita first described these extremely 
intense wind patterns in 1974. He noted that microbursts are usually 
short-lived, lasting only 5 to 15 minutes, but that they are extremely 
dangerous, especially for aircraft, because they cause sudden unexpected 
changes in wind direction or speed. Since the mid-1970s, many airports have 
installed Doppler radar systems to help them detect potentially deadly 
microbursts.