Warm thunderstorm outflow?

[Mikaela Norris]

Early on Saturday morning (between 2 and 3am local time) I was out watching the lightning from nearby storms. There was a storm a few miles south of my location here in San Angelo, TX, and it was getting pretty breezy in my area (presumably due to outflow). What caught my attention was the wind suddenly became extremely warm, like someone flipped a switch. I usually associate thunderstorm outflow with cool and sometimes even cold wind. What causes warm outflow?

 

[K. Gentry]

Heatbursts. In a nutshell, what is happening is that sinking/descending air warms as it goes toward the surface(all the while, accelerating).The sinking/warming is a well known in meteorology known as adiabatic compression. Heatbursts are rare, occurring in decaying thunderstorms. Once reaching the surface, wind does spread out like any other thunderstorm-associated outflow. Here's a read-up on Heatbursts from NWS Albuquerque. They go over the typical tropospheric setup leading to their formation.

 

[Mikaela Norris]

Heatbursts. In a nutshell, what is happening is that sinking/descending air warms as it goes (accelerates) toward the surface (adiabatic compression). Heatbursts are rare, occurring in decaying thunderstorms. Once reaching the surface, wind does spread out like any other thunderstorm-associated outflow. Here's a read-up on Heatbursts from NWS Albuquerque. They go over the typical tropospheric setup leading to their formation.

Very interesting read. Thanks! The winds were definitely gusty, however any difference in temp/ dp must have been short lived in my case as just a few hours later a tornadic supercell formed and moved through town as well. I'm sure that could also be contributed to the still volatile atmosphere at the time. Regardless I learned something new. Thanks again!