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Inmeteorology, aheat burst is a rare atmospheric phenomenon characterized by a sudden, localized increase in airtemperature near the Earth's surface. Heat bursts typically occur during night-time and are associated with decayingthunderstorms.^[1] They are also characterized by extremely dry air and are sometimes associated with very strong, even damaging, winds.

Although the phenomenon is not fully understood, the event is thought to occur when rain evaporates (virga) into a parcel of cold, dry air high in the atmosphere, making the air denser than its surroundings.^[2] The parcel descends rapidly, warming due to compression, overshoots itsequilibrium level, and reaches the surface, similar to adownburst.^[3]

Recorded temperatures during heat bursts, as informally known as "Satan's Storm", have reached well above 40 °C (104 °F), sometimes rising by 10 °C (18 °F) or more within only a few minutes.

In general, heat bursts occur during the late spring and summer seasons. During these times,air-mass thunderstorms tend to generate due to daytime heating and lose their main energy during the evening hours.^[4] Due to the potential temperature increase, heat bursts normally occur at night, though they have also been recorded during the daytime. Heat bursts can vary widely in duration, from a couple of minutes to several hours. The phenomenon is usually accompanied by strong gusty winds, extreme temperature changes, and an extreme decrease inhumidity. They may occur near the end of a weakening thunderstorm cluster. Dry air and a low-leveltemperature inversion may also be present during the storm.^[5]

Heat bursts are thought to be caused by a mechanism similar to that ofdownbursts. As the thunderstorm starts to dissipate, the layer of clouds starts to rise. After the clouds have risen, a rain-cooled layer remains. The cluster shoots a burst of unsaturated air down towards the ground. In doing so, the system loses all of itsupdraft-related fuel.^[6] The raindrops begin to evaporate into dry air, which reinforces the effects of the heat burst (evaporation cools the air, increasing its density). As the unsaturated air descends into lower levels of the atmosphere, the air pressure increases. The descending air parcel warms at the dry adiabaticlapse rate of approximately 10 °C per 1000 meters (5.4 °F per 1000 feet) of descent. The warm air from the cluster replaces the cool air on the ground. The effect is similar to someone blowing down on a puddle of water.

On 4 March 1990, theNational Weather Service inGoodland, Kansas, detected a system that had weakened, containing light rain showers and snow showers. It was followed by gusty winds and a temperature increase. The detection proved that heat bursts can occur in both summer months and winter months, and also that a weakening thunderstorm was not necessary for the development of a heat burst.

The first step in forecasting and preparing for heat bursts is recognizing the events that precede them. Rain from a highconvection cloud falls below cloud level and evaporates, cooling the air. Air parcels that are cooler than the surrounding environment descend in altitude. Lastly, temperature conversion mixed with adowndraft momentum continues downward until the air reaches the ground. The air parcels then become warmer than their environment.

McPherson, Lane, Crawford, and McPherson Jr. researched the heat burst system at theOklahoma Mesonet, which is owned by both theUniversity of Oklahoma andOklahoma State University. The purpose of their research was to discover any technological benefits and challenges in detecting heat bursts, to document the time of day and year at which heat bursts are most likely to occur, and to research the topography of where heat bursts are most likely to occur in Oklahoma.

Scientists and meteorologists use archived data to manually study data that detected 390 potential heat burst days during a fifteen-year period. In studying the archived data, they observed that 58% of the potential days haddry line passages, frontal passages, or a temperature change due to an increase in solar radiation in the hours of the morning or a daytime precipitation weather system.

By studying the archived data, scientists have the ability to determine the beginning, peak, and end of heat burst conditions. The peak of heat burst conditions is the maximum observed temperature. The beginning of a heat burst is the time during which the air temperature increases without decreasing until after the peak; the end of a heat burst is when the system ceases to affect the temperature and dew point of the area.

In addition to researching the life cycle and characteristics of heat bursts, a group of scientists concluded that the topography of Oklahoma coincided with the change in atmospheric moisture between northwest and southeast Oklahoma. An increase in convection normally occurs over theHigh Plains of the United States during the late spring and summer. They also concluded that a higher increase in convection develops if a mid-tropospheric lifting mechanism interacts with an elevated moist layer.^[7]

• Topographically induced winds of related nature:
  • Foehn wind
  • Katabatic wind

• "P11.13 THE 22–23 May 1996 Heatburst: a severe wind event"
• What is a Heat Burst?
• The Texas Heat Burst, OthersArchived 12 September 2017 at theWayback Machine

• Wind
• Severe weather and convection

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