"Derecho damage is typically 'in one direction along a relatively straight swath,' according to the National Weather Service."
From "From Midwest prepares for intense severe storms, threat of derecho/A derecho moving through Iowa last year killed four people" (ABC News).
The derecho has certainly garnered our attention here in Madison.
"During most severe thunderstorms, there is a brief period of very gusty winds. A location that is hit by a derecho will see long-lived, extremely severe winds. The derecho itself may travel several hundred miles or more over the course of several hours. Because the period of peak wind gusts may last for an extended period, some have compared the destruction of a derecho to that of a hurricane."
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7 comments:
Tom writes:
"The derecho that wrecked Memphis in 2003 became known as Hurricane Elvis. And people there noticed how the disaster was completely ignored by the national media."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Summer_Storm_of_2003
https://memphismagazine.com/habitats/hurricane-elvis/
We had a tornado warning for a while there. Out of the basement now. Some strong thunderstorm. Light rain now. Light wind.
Skeptical Voter writes:
“ Our host’s wide ranging eye keeps bringing new things to our attention. I’ve not heard of derechos before. But I live high on the face of one of the front ranges of the San Gabriel Mountains (the northern border of the Los Angeles Basin). January and February bring some Santa Ana Winds to the Basin. That brings extreme high winds to the mountain face. Some years back my wife was chiding my daughter—then living in Miami—as to whether she had obtained hurricane insurance. Ten days later we had 85 mph (actually greater than hurricane force) winds at our house (the daughter never did get hurricane insurance before she moved to London). Over the years the solar heating system on our roof—all 500 sqaure feet of it—was torn off the roof and wound up in our back yard. Our neighbor’s very heavily built gazebo leaped two six foot fences and a twenty foot wide alley to wind up in our swimming pool. But the winds play along the face of the mountains. As such they don’t swirl but they do cause damage. My nearest airport was at Burbank. During January and February planes departing to the north out of Burbank for San Francisco, Portland or Seattle gave you a guaranteed E Ticket ride as they bucked the winds over the San Gabriels.
“But derechos are new to me—and the good news for folks in Los Angeles is that they won’t be visiting us soon. If a derecho has to go at least 240 miles in a straight line—well that’s Los Angeles to almost Las Vegas. I’ll keep my earthquakes and mountain winds—and the Midwest can have its tornadoes and derechos.”
Wilbur writes:
"I learned a new word too.
"After college, I worked for my hometown's Street Department for a year and a half. One weekend some friends and I drove down to Memphis to visit a friend. Coming back into town Sunday evening, it was clear something like a tornado had hit the small city. Trees down, roads blocked, etc. The Street Department spent the next week just cleaning up the mess. People who were there said they'd never seen or heard anything like it.
"It was never called a tornado. Now I know it was a derecho.
"And had we known it then, we would've called it a Dorito.
"And BTW, there is no such thing as hurricane insurance. There is property insurance (or rental insurance). After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, most of the insurance companies left the State of Florida, no longer writing property insurance policies, leaving homeowners scrambling. Many, like myself could only get coverage in a new State-run insurance pool. My old longtime insurance company turned out to be like a not-so-good neighbor after all."
Curious George writes:
"Not sure what we got raised to derecho level, doesn’t seem so. Storm hit here in Milwaukee about 2AM I think. Thunder woke me up. Not much by then, and no sirens that I heard. I don’t see even any small limbs or leaves down this morning, so winds weren’t much, and very little rain. Lots of lightning though.
"I subscribe to a few farming youtube channels, one from a family in Iowa, who got slammed as part of that derecho last year. They lost their grain bins, as did many across the state. Apparently those bins aren’t that strong empty, and the got crunched and collapsed like a beer can. It also flattened their corn, which up to the storm looked like a bumper crop. Google Iowa derecho damage."
Narr writes:
"Since my hometown was mentioned--
"Hurricane Elvis, summer of 2003. Massive loss of trees and power poles.
Some areas were without power for a week or more."
Barbara writes:
"O dear. We flew out of Madison noonish on Wednesday. At our layover in Minneapolis, my son texted we had missed some weather.
"Sometimes it's better not to know how lucky you were...until later."
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