Someone with a twisted sense of humor offers free firewood in Falls Church, Va., Monday, July, 2, 2012, as cleanup continued after Friday's storm, Around 2 million utility customers are without electricity across a swath of states along the East Coast and as far west as Illinois as the area recovers from a round of summer storms. (AP Photo/Karen Mahabir)
Friday night, my Twitter feed blew up with friends and weather enthusiasts alike talking about a massive storm that just blew through the Washington D.C. area.
Enormous trees were blown down all over, with more than 2 million without power at one point from
Illinois to the Atlantic and 24 deaths reported so far. More than one million are still without power during the current heat wave…not a good time to be without power.
It was a derecho, a new term to me. I just thought such a thing was called a thunderstorm.
But, according to the
Storm Prediction Center, a derecho is “a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. By definition, if the wind damage swath extends more than 240 miles (about 400 kilometers) and includes wind gusts of at least 58 mph (93 km/h) or greater along most of its length, then the event may be classified as a derecho.”
Yep… sounds like a thunderstorm to me.
This storm was a big deal to the Midwest and mid-Atlantic for three reasons:
- 1) Derechos are rare in that part of the country. This map from the Storm Prediction Center shows where most derechos strike. Notice where we are. This storm struck in an area that sees one derecho every two to four years.
- 2) Related to number 1, there are a lot of people who live in that part of the country. When you have more people in a closer area, widespread damage will have a much wider affect. Downed trees over power lines in an urban neighborhood are generally a bigger problem than downed lines in a field in northeast Oklahoma.
- 3) The heat. When temperatures have been over 100 every day since the storm, people will be widely affected by that heat. Imagine if you didn’t have any air conditioning the past week. That would be miserable.
This storm was remarkable in its size and power. At one point, it was nearly the size of Ohio diagonally. And wind speeds in excess of 80 and 90 mph were recorded at multiple locations. Here is a composite image of the radar after the storm went through. Notice the time markers and wind speeds. This thing was a freight train.
Whether you’re used to storms like that or not, it will definitely leave a mark.
While it was happening, I just though “Oh these silly East Coasters wouldn’t know a storm like we see if it…well hit them in the face.” But in retrospect, that’s dumb. Yes, we have storms, but one that large is rare, even here. And while we are known for tornadoes in Oklahoma, they are mostly isolated and rural. AND they have hurricanes every now and then.
The worst part is that it could be another week before all the power is restored, and the heat wave has no sign of letting up.
--Jerry Wofford
