The Heat Burst Phenomenon Explained

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A temperature spike of nearly 20 degrees occurred in western Nebraska early Tuesday morning from a relatively rare phenomenon called a heat burst.

The temperature rose from 73.9 degrees to 92.3 degrees in about 2 hours. That temperature rise happened at a weather station early Tuesday morning in Ogallala, Nebraska, from 12:15 a.m. MDT to approximately 2:00 a.m. MDT. T​he temperature then fell back down into the 70s shortly thereafter.

Several other weather stations in the area also saw brief, notable overnight temperature increases, including one that jumped to 94 degrees.

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T​hunderstorms were to blame for this strange overnight temperature rise. H​eat bursts in the United States most commonly occur in the Plains states during late spring and summer.

They develop occasionally when a thunderstorm is dying, sending temperatures rocketing to levels typically seen in the middle of a hot day.

Typically, when thunderstorms decay there is enough precipitation to survive dry air aloft, which results in rain and sometimes wind or hail reaching the surface.

However, when there's not enough precipitation falling or the air is too dry, the precipitation evaporates above the surface. Consequently, the air falls quickly and warms by compression and the result is a blast of hot, dry wind reaching the surface.

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Chris Dolce has been a senior meteorologist with weather.com for over 10 years after beginning his career with The Weather Channel in the early 2000s.