Strong wind gust leave some Central Missouri residents without power
Showers across Mid-Missouri brought more than just much needed rain earlier Tuesday. Localized strong gust of winds caused various trees and powerlines to fall across areas of Mid-Missouri resulting in the loss of power for various business and homes.
Residents in Montgomery county felt the bruit of these winds as nearly 1500 residents were reported to have lost power. According to Ameren, a large tree fell over due to high winds resulting in power lines being taken down.
Wind gusts up to 54 mph were reported by the National Weather Service out of St. Louis from the Columbia Regional Airport. These gusts remained short lived within a 30 minute long period of time. Williamsburg also recorded strong gust topping out at just under 44 mph. The second strongest gust recorded in Mid-Missouri belongs to the city of Vandalia.
The reasoning behind these isolated strong gust lies in surface pressure maps. White curved lines represent equal lines of pressure known as isobars. Whenever isobars are located within a close distance of each other, winds are increased. This represents a steep increase or decrease in pressure over a short amount of land.
Air is similar to water as in it is always trying to reach a state of equilibrium. Air will flow from areas of high pressure, rushing towards low pressure voids to try to create an equal state. This creates the strong winds Central Missouri saw on the tail end of the low pressure system that passed just to the southeast earlier Tuesday morning.
