List of downbursts
Wikimedia list article

This is a list of notable downbursts (microbursts or macrobursts).
List
Before 1900
August 1, 1674 - An extraordinarily extreme downburst associated with a bow echo led to the partial collapse of a well-built cathedral from Utrecht, Netherlands. Many limestone homes were leveled to the ground and many churches were destroyed across the country. Peak wind gusts were estimated to have reached (~325 km/h; ~200 mph) at the Utrecht cathedral.
July 13, 1890 – A microburst capsized the vessel Sea Wing on Lake Pepin between Wisconsin and Minnesota, killing 98 people.
1960s
A particularly violent microburst is a possible alternative explanation to the 1961 sinking of the American school brigantine Albatross. The ship's captain Dr. Christopher Sheldon claimed that the ship was hit by a white squall on the voyage from Progreso, Yucatán, to Nassau in the Bahamas.
1980s-1990s
1980–1995 – FAA-supported investigations into microburst morphology and microburst detection and warning systems. Principals: Ted Fujita, U. Chicago, John McCarthy and James Wilson, NCAR, J. Evans and Marilyn M. Wolfson, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, R Bowles and F Proctor, NASA).
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