Home of Storm Chasers Tony Propp and Brady Kendrick

Well after the dry spring the region has been having, the central Texas Panhandle did finally pick up some decent rainfall! Places across the region were reporting anywhere from a trace to 1.5 inches here in Canyon. The storms on Wednesday night though came with a nasty punch as well. As the storms came into the Canyon area, they became severe and produced severe winds in the form of a microburst that did quite a bit of damage just north of the city of Canyon. We will go into what a microburst is and also the damage this one did just north of town. (if you want, you can skip to the damage pictures at the end of the post)

A microburst is a localized but intense area of thunderstorm winds that are the result of rain cool air crashing to the surface at a rapid rate. Generally these winds only cover areas in 1/2 to 2 mile swaths but the damage in these swaths can be significant with winds up to 130 mph at the worst. Microburst tend to be more frequent when a thunderstorm moves over a layer of dry air. This dry air allows the rain/rain cooled air to fall quickly to the ground. On August 24, temperatures had been above 100 degrees with dew points only in the upper 40s/low to mid 50s setting the stage for microburst.

About 6 to 8 pm thunderstorms began to fire north of Amarillo along a frontal boundary. These thunderstorms then moved southward starting around the 9pm hour. As they continued to move south, they began to intensify quickly. As they moved over the Randall County area, they became severe and produced some 60mph just after 10pm. I was fortunate enough to be out taking lightning pictures and found myself out in front of the storm. As 10:18 pm rolled around, a microburst became visible near Canyon. In the photograph below, you can see how classic of a microburst this was.

In the center of the frame, you can see where the rain and cooled air is rapidly coming down to the ground. On the left side of that, you can see how the winds spread out after they hit the ground (note the dust kicking up). It is in the areas around the direct impact of the microburst that will see the worst wind typically. Once the wind spreads out for a few miles, it will typically not do as much damage as near the site of impact.

In this case, the microburst hit in a rural area fortunately (although it was only 1 mile north of the City of Canyon which got lucky). In the image below you can see how localized microburst damage truly is.....this one only covered a swath about 1/2 mile wide by .75 miles long.

In this map you will also note yellow markers indicating damage from the microburst. After the event, I went out and did a little survey of the damage to be able to get a sense of the strength of the winds, and the scale of this microburst. The microburst first made impact near a corn field off of Country Club Road in the top right part of the image above. At that location, a power pole was severely bent to the SW and just down the road, part of the roof of a outbuilding was removed and blown to the west. This kind of damage is conclusive with the 70-75mph range.

After traveling for about 2/3 of a mile, the winds were able to snap 6 power-poles in half and also flatten vegetation in a field next to the poles. This kind of damage definitely indicates a significant downburst. Based on the damage at this location, I would say winds maxed out in the 85 to 95mph range, but honestly they could have been a touch higher as well.

This downburst was a fairly localized and was only about 1/2 mile wide by 3/4 miles long. Winds probably maxed out in the 85-90mph range towards the end of the swath. It is very fortunate though this downburst did not hit a mile to the south or else it would have hit the Hunsley Hills neighborhood of Canyon (which just happens to be my home).

Thanks for reading and enjoy some of the pictures from the damage survey

-Brady Kendrick

One of the six power-poles that got snapped in half/at the base.

The leaning power-pole at the beginning of the swath of damage.

Outbuilding with uplift and removal of the roof.

A close up view of the vegetation that was flattened.

A few more damage pictures can be found here