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What caused Wednesday's microburst in Georgetown?

Microbursts are extremely localized, oftentimes only a mile or two, or less, in diameter.

GEORGETOWN, Texas — Video sent in by Cody Holder from the Georgetown area on Wednesday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. appears to show very strong microburst winds as a result of a decaying thunderstorm.

Microbursts like this can take place when a strong downdraft within a weakening storm descends to the ground, causing very localized damaging winds.

Microbursts are extremely localized, oftentimes only a mile or two, or less, in diameter. This is why many people who live near Georgetown did not experience strong winds, or may not have had much stormy weather at all as the storm quickly fell apart.

It's tough to gauge the exact wind speeds shown in the video, but some of the strongest microbursts have been known to produce winds up to 100 mph or higher.

It might sound hard to believe, but this video captured by Cody Holder shows some very localized microburst winds from a decaying storm over Georgetown earlier today. 🌧

Posted by KVUE on Wednesday, July 28, 2021

While most of Central Texas was hot and dry on Wednesday afternoon, a few isolated showers and storms developed over parts of Williamson County. One of these storms drifted into the Georgetown area after about 4 p.m. with heavy rain, lightning and perhaps some small hail.

This storm began to quickly collapse as it drifted westward around 4:30 p.m. and, at that time, an intense downdraft from the weakening storm likely produced the strong winds seen in the video. 

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