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SUNNY Temp: 72 °F Wind: W at 3 mph Thursday, July 18, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Cyberchef E The People Golf Job Network Headbone Zone Wellness Connection Movie Times Newspaper in Education Oregon CarZone Outdoor Journal Personals Prime Times Real Estate Tempo A & E TV Times W3 Magazine CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Destinations Automotive Communities Employment Entertainment Publications Real Estate Recreation Shopping Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Jobs @ Mail Tribune Email Story to a Friend July 16, 2002 Sams Valley picks up after destructive winds By MEG LANDERS Mail Tribune SAMS VALLEY — Terrie Wolf is picking up the pieces. Literally. "I have a lot of manure and leaves on my wall, so I’m cleaning that," said the 51-year-old Sams Valley resident. "Both ends of our house are gone." The Wolf family is among residents cleaning up Monday after an unusual weather event Saturday near the intersection of Dodge and Antioch roads. High winds from a microburst caused damage to an area about 2.5 miles by .5 miles, according to Murray Orr, hydrometeorologist with the National Weather Service office in Medford. "We’re estimating winds were in excess of 80 miles per hour," he said, adding that this downburst lasted about five or six minutes. The microburst also destroyed a 120-foot-by-30-foot hangar, flipped over two private airplanes and damaged the wing of another at Beagle Sky Ranch. Philip Ratcliff owns one of those planes. "It’ll just be another parts plane," said Ratcliff, a flight instructor for 26 years, the past 10 of which were in his now-inverted Cessna 150. He said Monday he had just learned his insurance would not cover the plane. Ratcliff, 61, was driving out to the airport when the storm hit. "We just had to lock our brakes up," he said. "There was hail, rain, wind. We couldn’t see past the hood of the car." As a pilot, he was familiar with a microburst and knew there was a chance he’d find some damage, he said. But he didn’t expect to find his plane ripped from its mooring and upside down beneath a giant tree that had been scarred 20 feet up by the impact. The ironic thing, he said, was that the squirt bottle he used for cleaning lay undisturbed on the ground next to the mooring. There are flattened outbuildings and large downed oak limbs near neatly stacked hay. Sheets of metal are plastered against fences and massive oak limbs have been ripped from trees within feet of untouched landscaping. Residents on Saturday night thought it was just a thunderstorm coming their way. "We were having a yard sale when it looked like a storm," said Wolf. All of a sudden, as the family was moving things up onto the deck, a forceful strong wind and hail hit with no warning, she said. Her daughter-in-law, holding her infant baby, just made it through the door and ducked in behind the refrigerator when a mass of debris blew in the door behind her, Wolf said. "Huge beams flew," she said. "Our barn flew away." Orr said that microbursts probably occur mostly in unpopulated areas and go unreported, so it’s difficult to speculate on their frequency. But such a storm in a populated area in the Rogue Valley is highly unusual. "This is the first one I have seen, and I’ve been here over 10 years," he said. Wolf said gratitude and a sense of humor are coming in handy for her. "We had no bodily injuries," she said. Besides, it helped get rid of some old things, she added. "When we have a yard sale, we really clean up." Reach reporter Meg Landers at 776-4481 or e-mail [email protected] . Powerful downdrafts called microbursts are usually brief A microburst is a powerful downdraft associated with thunderstorms, said Murray Orr of the National Weather Service in Medford. "You have a thunderstorm and you have real cold air pooled (above), and eventually it gets too heavy and that cold air comes rushing to the ground," said Orr. "It’s a thunderstorm falling apart." According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Web site, microbursts can occur with convective weather conditions — thunderstorms, rain showers and particularly hail or virga. "Virga is rain that evaporates before it reaches the ground and is associated with a dry microburst," the site explains. NOAA estimates that about 5 percent of all thunderstorms produce microbursts and they can bring significant wind damage. Typically, downdrafts associated with microbursts are a few hundred to a few thousand feet across. "When the downdraft reaches the ground, it spreads out horizontally. ... The life cycle of a downburst is usually between 15 to 20 minutes," the NOAA site says. Orr likened the storm to turning over a glass full of water. "It’s like when you’re holding a glass of water eye-level," he said. "And as you’re walking, you dump the water out. Most of it’s going to go the direction you’re traveling." Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy web master feedback A D V E R T I S E R S