Derecho in Progress Upper Midwest
August 10, 2020
The historic Derecho of summer 2012 was a key piece of one of my favorite videos.
Derechos are large clusters of thunderstorms that most commonly form in late spring and summer and cause widespread destruction to trees, power lines and sometimes structures.
From the Spanish word for “straight”, these windstorms leave wide, long areas of straight-line wind damage. The winds can be as strong as 60 to 100 mph or higher in extreme cases. They’re usually produced by one or more curved lines of thunderstorms known as a bow echo or squall line.
A single severe thunderstorm may produce an area of damaging winds only a mile or two wide and a few miles long, but derechos can produce damage tens of miles wide and hundreds of miles long. They should cover a distance of at least 250 miles, according to a 2005 study by Walker Ashley and Thomas Mote.
Cleanup from the extensive damage from a derecho can take days to weeks. In the worst derecho events, sometimes relief workers from other states are needed to aid in these efforts.
August 10, 2020 at 10:37 pm
I had to check the video again: No one used the common but inappropriate phrase “the new normal”.
August 11, 2020 at 12:27 pm
Power went off at 4:15 pm yesterday 1/10/2020. 12:25pm now and power is still off. It looks like the kind that could be off for a week if we are at the end of the list. Running generator 2 hrs and 2 hrs off.
August 11, 2020 at 2:26 pm
Welcome to the Rest of Our Lives IS one of your best videos. I had forgotten what a crazy year 2012 was, and how hard the derecho hit the DC area that year. The local Manassas airport crew reported 85+ MPH winds before they ran for the stairs because the building was shaking so much. I had the top 15 feet of a pine tree broken off by the wind and thrown halfway across the yard. A scary event.