Powerful straight-line winds that strafed Carmichael neighborhoods, toppling trees and sending roof shingles and patio furniture flying, blew in on the coattails of thunderstorms that struck the Sacramento area Tuesday.
The late-morning downdraft wind event about 10 a.m. Tuesday carried gusts of up to 70 mph at their peak, said Dakari Anderson, a forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Sacramento.
When downdrafts cause damage on the ground as in Carmichael on Tuesday, they are known as downbursts, say forecasters. Ones of short distances, less than 2.5 miles in diameter, are known as microbursts. The bursts packed a punch, uprooting even mature trees in the Carmichael area, and disrupting power to thousands of Sacramento Municipal Utility District customers…