A wet microburst with wind gusts up to 60 mph destroyed a hangar at Houston’s Hobby Airport Tuesday April 3. According to news reports no one was inside the hangar when the microburst occurred and no one was injured. The hangar, owned by Jet Aviation, had four aircraft inside that were damaged. An additional four aircraft outside of the hangar were also damaged. The public information officer at Hobby Airport said, “There’s millions of dollars in damage.”
The airport authorities and Jet Aviation are working to remove the debris and prevent FOD from getting to the nearby runway. There were no reported flight delays and operations were moved to the other side of the airport for the time being.
The National Weather Service defines microbursts as a localized column of sinking air (downdraft) within a thunderstorm andis usually less than or equal to 2.5 miles in diameter. Microbursts can cause extensive damage at the surface, and in some instances, can be life-threatening. There are two primary types of microbursts: a wet microburst, which is accompanied by significant precipitation, and dry microbursts, which are not associated with precipitation.
