Thunderstorm "hot flashes"

Thunderstorm outflow is characterized by cool moist air and gusty, frequently violent winds right? Wrong! On occasion, thunderstorm downdrafts (downbursts, microbursts) produce dramatic surface warming along with a large drop in relative humidity, and strong, gusty surface winds. Although such a "hot flash" or "heat burst" is a rare enough event that it is seldom seen on SAO roundups, reports of such events from other observers surface several times a year.