Bill Sammler, National Weather Service, Wakefield, VA, presents “Understanding Tornadoes, Microbursts and Downbursts” webinar. This webinar was sponsored by Virginia Department Emergency Management on March 24, 2015 via a Webinar.
Every year, wind related thunderstorms and sever weather causes damage throughout the United States. The damage most frequently results from straight-line thunderstorm winds (also known as downbursts and microbursts), and much less frequently from tornadoes. This webinar will look at the basic meteorology of these wind phenomena, and provide some insight as to what clues NWS meteorologists look for to determine whether a thunderstorm could produce a tornado, or is strong enough to generate damaging straight-line thunderstorm wind.