This is a picture of an almost 100% blowdown of trees after the famous July 4, 1977 derecho near Phillips, Wisconsin.  At both Phillips and Rhinelander, the wind exceeded 100 mph before the instruments blew away.  Winds were estimated to be between 115 and 13o mph.  In Price and Oneida Cos. alone, 370,000 acres of forest were destroyed or heavily damaged.   Thirty homes in Phillips were destroyed and most others had significant damage.  One person was killed and dozens were injured.

On July 4, 1969, severe thunderstorms formed in the evening and dropped several tornadoes across Lower Michigan. More than 60 people are injured, most of them from a tornado that hit Flat Rock in southern Wayne County. This tornado destroyed a tile factory, carrying sheet metal over a mile away. Another tornado injured eleven people about four miles east of Jackson as it damaged a dozen mobile homes.

On July 4, 2003 seven people drowned in rip currents near St. Joseph, MI after straight-line winds from a thunderstorm piled water along the coast, resulting in a seiche with rip currents that carried swimmers away from shore. The July 4-5, 1980 derecho hit the southern part of Lower Michigan.  It was one of several monster-sized derechos to hit Michigan that summer.  That storm started in western Iowa and went all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.  Four of the six fatalities were from boats overturning in the fierce wind and waves.

The July 4, 1969 derecho could be called the “I’m glad I wasn’t riding the cable cars at Cedar Point that day” derecho!  That storm produced +100 mph winds from Toledo to Cleveland. Finally, the absolutely incredible Boundary Waters derecho of 1999 (10 years ago today) changed the landscape forever in NE Minnesota.  The storms formed in North Dakota and went over 1300 miles in 22 hours all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.   At Fargo, ND, the wind exceeded 58 mph for 39 minutes, reaching a peak gust of 91 mph at 7:42 AM!  Damage was over 100 million dollars!