Downbursts are dramatically different from the atmospheric boundary layer. To investigate the wind load characteristics of high-rise building in thunderstorm downbursts, a static impinging jet was used to simulate the thunderstorm downburst. Rigid model manomeric test was carried on a high-rise building. Both local and overall wind load characteristics were discussed in time domain and frequency domain. The results indicate that the position of the maximum mean surface pressure is consistent with the peak radial velocity. Meanwhile, the maximum surface pressure on the windward side is located at the bottom of the building, obviously different from the top part tested in atmospheric boundary layer wind field. The maximum mean radial wind load of each layer is located at the middle of the building. And the mean wind load is 0 at the cross-wind and torsional direction. Wind load spectrums of each layer keep unchanged along the height at the radial and cross-wind direction. But wind load spectrums changes obviously at the twist direction.