Wet Microburst Likely Yesterday in Gaston County

A strong thunderstorm moved down from the foothills into the piedmont Sunday evening causing a lot of damage in Denver, Belmont and Mt. Holly in Gaston Co. There was even damage reported in Clover in York Co. All the Doppler radar data and pictures I have see so far point to a “wet microburst” as the cause of this damage. This type of downburst wind is the cause of the majority of damage from severe thunderstorms in the Carolinas. Take a look at the radar images from yesterday both showing high reflectivity crashing to the surface right over Belmont. The area in pink is likely really heavy rain & hail within the wet microburst. The left image is a volumetric 3d view the right is a 3d cross section view.

I wrote about the difference between tornadic winds and straight-line winds before you can reference that Blog post here. Here’s another great look at what a microburst looks like and should help explain why it can be so violent.