Posted on 05/19/2024 4:28:21 PM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
They used to be called “straight line winds.” There was a derecho in Wayne County Michigan in 1980. They have the power of tornadoes without the spin. My husband and his brother experiences it. The power there in Wayne, Michigan was out for a week.
Same thing about El Nino and El Nina...fear mongering with the use of foreign words.
Never heard of a derecho till a few years back. And I am 77 years old. We just called them a rain and wind storm.
I am reminded when the local weather news went bonkers over the term “El Nino” back in the 1980s. You would have thought the end of the world was nigh.
“derecho”. Latest fear mongering word to frighten people. It is just a big thunderstorm with lots of rain, as has been happening since forever”
Yeah...until you’ve lived through one like we did in eastern Iowa in August 2020. Without power for over a week. Houses destroyed..fields flattened. We had power companies from the south come up and say the damage was in some areas was worse than a hurricane...minus the flooding. You don’t know what you don’t know...Cedar Rapids lost 65% of its tree canopy. Just a thunderstorm with rain.....
On January 11, 2022, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Environment and Climate Change Canada formally revised the criteria for a storm to be classified as a derecho. A wind storm must meet the following criteria:
Wind damage swath extending for more than 400 miles (640 km)
Wind gusts of at least 58 miles per hour (26 m/s; 50 kn) along most of its length
Several, well-separated 75 miles per hour (34 m/s; 65 kn) or greater gusts
Prior to January 11, 2022, the definition for a derecho was:
Wind damage swath extending for more than 240 mi (390 km)
Wind gusts of at least 58 mph (93 km/h; 26 m/s; 50 kn) along most of its length
Right
“I never, in all my years, heard of a derecho.”
It’s what normal people call strong winds.
Dechero? Never heard that term before today.
North Mississippi and West Tennessee experienced one from Memphis to around the Alabama state line a few years back and the damage was pretty severe...it was named Hurricane Elvis...
Whenever they rarely happen around here I just say it’s Chicago sucking.
“ I never, in all my years, heard of a derecho.”
Because you’re not spanish! Those julios and julietas know what that means!
Bastardization of the english language.
It’s the Spanish word for straight. So straight line winds are a derecho.
““derecho”. Latest fear mongering word to frighten people.”
You have no clue.
“Dechero? Never heard that term before today.”
Maybe that’s because you didn’t spell it correctly.
Think I learned the term following the storm that took out the Hood Canal Floating Bridge in 1979.
“ It is just a big thunderstorm with lots of rain, as has been happening since forever.”
Wrong you obviously know nothing about thus weather event
“ It’s what normal people call strong winds.”
Wrong again. These are hurricane force winds
I heard of derecho in meteorology class 58 years ago and hadn’t heard of it since till now:)
We’re the same age.
LOL
A derecho will typically have:
Well over hurricane force winds, usually delivered (by the storm over its path, not in any one spot) for hours, perhaps several hours.
Holds together as an identifiable continuous storm for several hours. (Little “diminish here and pop up new over there” type tomfoolery, once it gets going.)
A path length of several hundred or even over 1000 miles.
A very large and sustained bow echo.
Large, strong, and sustained rear inflow jet.
Sometimes will have a significant and sustained bookend vortex.
How much of those fit the NWS description of even a large, strong thunderstorm?
The only thing that comes close is a storm carrying a long track very large tornado, similar to the one that hit Western KY a couple years ago. However, NWS does not consider such a storm to be in the same class as a “big thunderstorm with a lot of rain”, nor does such a major tornadic storm cover a wide area as does a derecho.
Living in the Midwest and now in the Mid-South, my family is very accustomed to “big thunderstorms with a lot of rain.” Some produce significant damage. The derecho that whacked us in May of 2009 was a whole ‘nother ball game...
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