Severe Thunderstorms Southern California - September 16th

From Jim Means in southern California:
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A friend of mine, Mary Lakatos, was flying around last Tuesday and took these pictures, and I thought you might be interested in them. That day San Diego was in the outer circulation of Odile. It brought widespread east and southeast winds to the county.  While southeast winds occur in the deserts regularly during gulf surges, they are very unusual on this side of the mountains. In our normal monsoon thunderstorms there is a convergence zone over the mountains where the southeast winds converge with the sea breeze.  On this day that convergence zone was on the eastern side of the coastal plain and barely into the foothills.  I watched clouds build up over my house, then the storms would move off to the west.  It was dry enough so that there was an inverted-V sounding and strong downdrafts. Although they weren't all warned, I think every thunderstorm became severe.

Anyway, she was flying around near Miramar Marine Corps Air Station and took these microburst pictures. That storm moved over Montgomery Field, a public airport with lots of private planes. The downburst caused extensive damage--10 planes were totaled and more than 20 damaged. The wind went from 8 knots to 56 knots in about one minute.  They also got more than an inch of rain in less than an hour I think.

Jim