Imagine standing outside before sunrise when a typical humid morning in the 70s briefly turns into a windy blast of dry heat in the 90s. That's what happened in an Oklahoma town Sunday morning from an uncommon phenomenon called a heat burst.

The Rise And Fall

• 20-Degree Temperature Jump: Chickasha, Oklahoma, about 40 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, was 76 degrees at 4:05 a.m. Sunday morning. Just over an hour later at 5:15 a.m., the thermometer at an Oklahoma Mesonet weather station in the town spiked to 96 degrees.
• Windy And Dry Too: A thunderstorm-generated wind gust of nearly 60 mph was also recorded with this sudden temperature rise, and the air dried out significantly.
• It Was Short-Lived: The temperature fell as quickly as it jumped. About 45 minutes after hitting 96 degrees, the temperature was back in the upper 70s.

Examining What Happened

• A Heat Burst Was To Blame: This strange predawn temperature rise is occasionally seen in the overnight hours when dying thunderstorms send temperatures rocketing to levels typically seen in the middle of a hot day.
• How It Happens: Usually 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.
• Where And When They Are Most Common: While they can happen in other locations, the Plains states are where we see heat bursts most often occur in the United States. They usually happen in late spring and summer. Last July, we saw a similar heat-burst-driven overnight temperature rise in western Nebraska.

Chris Dolce has been a senior meteorologist with weather.com for nearly 15 years after beginning his career with The Weather Channel in the early 2000s.