Microburst slams Town of Landis

Monday night the skies turned ominous as storms began to move through the county. Rowan County Weather started warning residents of a severe thunderstorm approaching the county shortly after 5:30 pm. The social media post stated “Severe Thunderstorm working its way south into the county will be in Woodleaf and East Spencer around 6:30.”

Shortly after 6pm The National Weather Service issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the county until 7:15 Monday evening. Around 6:15 pm the Severe Thunderstorm was starting to enter the northern portion of the county near Woodleaf.  As the storm worked its way south it brought torrential downpours, frequent lightning and thunder. The skies had a very angry look to them. Around 7pm the severe storm was working its way into the South Rowan area along Flat Rock Road in China Grove and Landis. This area is where the first report of wind damage was submitted to Rowan County Weather from the storm. Within minutes reports continued to come in from the Landis area along Ryder Avenue and areas in northern Kannapolis. The Landis Fire Department setup an Emergency Command Center at the Landis Town Hall around 9:30pm to assess storm damage throughout the town of Landis. All off-duty emergency and public safety personnel were called in to assist.

After the storm had passed, radar data submitted to Rowan County Weather from our weather partner Brad Panovich of NBC-Charlotte. The data indicated a textbook signature of a microburst that likely included wind speeds of more than 60 miles per hour at times. A microburst is a downdraft of sinking air inside of a thunderstorm. Some microbursts can pose a threat to life and property, but all microbursts pose a significant threat to aviation.  Although microbursts are not as widely recognized as tornadoes, they can cause comparable, and in some cases, worse damage than some tornadoes produce.  In fact, wind speeds as high as 150 mph are possible in extreme microburst cases.

Deborah Horne of Rowan County Emergency Services stated “There were around 400 residents who lost power in the Town of Landis. We had personnel that came in last night and worked all through the night to get the power restored to everyone who lost it.” Horne said of the crews that came in “Everyone did a great job!” When asked about damage around the county from the storm Horne stated, “We had one tree go down in the Woodleaf area and then when it hit Landis it started bringing more trees down.”

The good news is the storm has come and gone! Property was damaged and trees were brought down.  However, these things can be replaced and repaired.