Heat bursts are an interesting and sometimes damaging weather phenomena caused by decaying thunderstorms forcing air to the surface without precipitation. This air warms and dries as it descends. Such an event or maybe even multiple such events were observed by the Des Moines airport early Tuesday morning. The featured chart presents available one minute interval observations of temperature, dew point, wind speed, wind gust, wind direction, and pressure. The classic heat burst signature is shown with the rapid increase in temperature coincident with a rapid decrease in dew point along with a pressure response. The data seems to shown at least two or maybe even three different heat burst events! Fortunately, no known damage reports were associated with this event. Sometimes winds can gust to damaging magnitudes and/or the rapid increase in temperature can damage sensitive plants.

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Tags:   heatburst