Microburst Rocks Cleveland
Cleveland, OH isn’t particularly known for its consistent sunny weather, with much of our cloudy and rainy weather being attributed to Lake Erie. Thunderstorms are particularly common however one stood out above the rest back in 2019 as it involved a microburst. This wasn’t the first time either in recent memory, with another microburst occurring in 2016 on Cleveland’s Eastside. I was a junior in high school at the time and I remember waking up in the middle of the night to the sounds of large crashes in the backyard. It wasn’t until the next morning that I realized that those noises came from about a dozen or so trees, most of which had been snapped in half if not entirely uprooted.
The storm brought winds with maximum speeds ranging between 80 to 90 mph causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage and leaving tens of thousands of homes without power, including my own. The damage included at least 50 utility poles and 122 downed electrical lines. Even with countless crews mobilized to repair the grid, it took about three days for our lights to turn back on. I remember watching the news and hearing the event being described as an EF-1 tornado based on the amount of damage it caused.
As we learned in class, microbursts (or downbursts) are a column of sinking air within a thunderstorm. They form as a result of suspended precipitation in the upper parts of a thunderstorm plummeting to the ground all at once. There was a considerable amount of debate regarding why this area of Cleveland had been repeatedly hit so hard with some questioning if its relatively elevated geography factored in at all. This theory was ultimately debunked as microbursts can occur anywhere regardless of geographical location. One thing that made the area unique however, was the relatively greater presence of mature trees, which are considerably susceptible to high winds. Additionally, data from Climate Central reveals a tenfold increase in major power outages over the past 40 years. Storms are increasing not only in number but in strength, another consequence of climate change. This uptick in severe storms has definitely been felt throughout the region with our most recent major storm taking place just before I left for Minnesota with a EF-1 tornado touching down, crippling the electrical grid yet again.
Damage from most recent tornado, killing seven people
It's unfortunate that there were so many mature trees in the area but also kind of cool to the aftermath of these trees after the winds. It's wild to see how much power microbursts have and how much can go on at once during this type of event. 3 days without power is also crazy, salute to you🫡
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