Derecho Blasts from Chicago to D.C. – 26 Dead
June 29th, 2012 at 12:53 pm by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, Weather
Here’s a satellite loop of the storm system. Click the image and graphic to enlarge. MORE THAN 1.5 MILLION CUSTOMERS WITHOUT POWER IN THE WASHINGTON D.C. AREA ALONE!! – Over 5.2 Million customers lost power from this deadly line of storms. ONE REPORT SAID MORE THAN HALF OF THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA WAS WITHOUT POWER!! 26 DEAD and dozens injured. Cherry trees around the Tidal Basin were snapped in half due to the strong winds. Over 500,000 customers without power in W.Virginia, where a State of Emergency has been declared. A State of Emergency in Ohio, where 900,000 lost power. It could take two weeks to get everyone back on! Evening wind gust to 87 mph at Romeoville IL, just SW of Chicago. From the first band of storms: Measured gust to 91 mph at the Fort Wayne Airport, 84 mph at Paulding OH, 76 mph at Antwerp, OH, 76 mph at a weather station southwest of New Buffalo MI - EVENING wind gusts: 71 mph Washington D.C. (Reagan Natl.), 70 mph (Dulles), 80 mph Frederick VA,82 mph Reston VA….247,000 without power in central Ohio and 151,000 without power in Indiana…at least one injury there…shingles blown off at Bunker Hill…radio towers blown down in Columbia City IN. Gust to 82 mph on the north side of Columbus, Ohio. Adams Co. Indiana: “MASSIVE DAMAGE…fires, trucks blown over, roofs blown off”. Many roads are blocked by fallen trees and wires. Three semis were blown off I-75 near Findlay OH. One official called it a “war zone”. 911 call centers were “overwhelmed”. Hartford City IN reports windows blown out through the county, roofs blown off, siding off buildings, five-foot diameter trees uprooted. Damage in the tens of millions of dollars. Pictures here. Check out the Severe Reports from SPC! A severe, fast-moving bowing arc of thunderstorms called a “derecho” blasted areas from N. Illinois to the Atlantic Coast. Widespread, significant wind damage occurred with literally tens of thousands of trees doppled. Storms in Iowa also caused 90 mph at Marengo IA and 75 mph at Norway IA. If any of those storms get to SW Michigan it will be after midnight…best chance SW corner of the state. The storms around midday produced 62 mph winds and 1″ diameter hail in the Chicago area. Crown Point, Indiana is getting more heavy rain after they got 1.6″ yesterday evening. Here’s regional radar, GRR radar, northern Indiana radar, and Chicago radar Lake Michigan water temperatures (inland lakes are mostly low 80s), a satellite loop (daytime). Here’s current Michigan temperatures, a surface weather map, and current weather for the Muskegon beach, Grand Haven channel, Holland St. Park, South Haven Beach, Lake Michigan water temperatures and rip current forecast, the Grand Rapids NWS discussion, Northern Indiana NWS discussion (includes the Michigan border counties), SE Michigan NWS discussion, Northern Michigan NWS discussion, local W. Michigan radar, regional radar, Lake Michigan beach webcams, tips to beat the summer heat. Record high temperatures are possible. Here’s the Michigan Drought Monitor and a dry weather update for the Michiana area. Here’s where you can check on the large wildfires going on out West. Here’s a National Weather Map and the Thunderstorm Outlooks for the next 3 days from the Storm Prediction Center (Slight Risk area to Lake Michigan Thursday PM). It’s 88 in G.R. at 2 PM. (87 Kalamazoo and 89 Big Rapids where there is a bit more sun). Air temperatures at the beaches: 72 S. Haven, 70 Holland, 71 Muskegon, 71 Ludington. Check out the WOOD lightning tracker and U.S. lightning and links to webcams. Picture on left is storm coming into Chicago this AM from Patrick DeHaan. Graph on the right from Greg Carbin and the Storm Prediction Center.
And…while we have a heat wave, New Zealand’s had record cold and snow (good train video).
It was a HOT one down in Bowling Green, KY today!
“RECORD EVENT REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE KY 710 PM EDT FRI JUN 29 2012 ..ALL TIME JUNE RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT BOWLING GREEN KY THE ALL TIME RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE FOR JUNE WAS BROKEN TODAY AT BOWLING GREEN. THE HIGH TEMPERATURE WAS 110 DEGREES WHICH BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 108 DEGREES SET IN 1936. THE DAILY RECORD HIGH WAS ALSO BROKEN FOR TODAY WITH THE 110 DEGREES SURPASSING THE OLD RECORD OF 108 SET IN 1936.”
SlimJim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=VJ-0qD3L_lk&NR=1
there’s the tornado outbreak i was talking to cort about in 1997 when i lived in macomb. i remember that day well, lots of damage.
Here you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Southeast_Michigan_tornado_outbreak
yeah i remember it well. i had my kid in the closet in the town home we lived in. scary stuff for sure.
hey bill do you know chuck gadica? ive met him several times and he is a top notch guy.
I’ve only met him once. I’ve heard only good things about him.
yeah he is known for his colorful ties.
These storm reports are pretty impressive. http://www.spc.noaa.gov/
im sure our time is coming, it can’t stay silent and dry like this forever. something will nail us when we least expect it.
Do you think we should be praying for God to send the rain?
As a believer, and knowing that we need rain, I’d be inclined say “yes”. I respect the fact that people have outdoor plans that rain (and storms) would disrupt. The area along I-94 and just north is especially dry.
Yes, thank you, Bill! Jesus is my Savior and Lord, too! He is the only One who can help us with the weather and our lives!
Thanks for sharing this, Bill. This made my morning!
Very dry here – 1.16 inches so far this month on the west side of Otsego – keep in mind Gods plans are not our own – He does hear our prayers and grants them if it figures into the big picture to which we have no clue – it is just to big for us to view….
I dont pray to “god” for things like that.
Praying for you, fixxer!
Why does the rain always fall apart so fast when it hits land after coming accross the lake. This is Soooooooooooooooooooooooo disappointing!
Just talked with a friend of mine in Maryland. He said it was ‘unreal’.
It was that tiny cell that started in Chicago – and she just grew and grew as it headed there.
That must have been what my family drove through coming home from our vacation in Tennessee. From Tennessee to Ohio, there was a 100 degree heat wave and as soon as we started pushing into Dayton, Ohio, we could see the storm clouds on the horizon.
However, once we got into the storm, the winds were blowing so strongly I thought some tornadoes were going to spin up. The winds were so bad that it was causing a minor dust storm as they were blowing piles of dirt from a nearby business across I-75.
It caused back-up after back-up due to semi truck accidents (even saw one accident where the entire windshield had been blown out of a semi) the rest of the trip home and from Dayton north, most cities were without power. Saw a lot of fallen trees but once we started getting north of Findlay, conditions were looking a lot better. If anyone was headed south on I-75 from Findlay during the early evening hours, however, there was a back-up spanning several miles and traffic was at a stand-still. Saw one guy playing his guitar for the other drivers caught up in it while they were waiting to get moving again. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it before.
Found this radar imagary composite of the derecho moving from No. Ill to WVA, posed on Twitter tonight. Quite amazing. Lots of buzz online. Amazon cloud was down, taking down Netflix, Instagram, and Pinterest with it.
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/293278_494477580569210_780076658_n.jpg
Bill: You often talk about the effect of corn plantings in the Midwest keeping down the summertime heat. Since there is some evidence of stunting in corn growth this summer (at least locally), has that been a factor in any of this heat? I’ve seen some fields with stalks not very mature yet and some looking perfectly fine. The ones that look perfectly fine use those gigantic moving sprinklers to water the fields. Those that are stunted don’t have them.
I am in Marne , with lots of corn around here. I see no issues what so ever around here. All looks good. Field corn looks the best as always and table corn looks almost knee high. Plenty green I might add.
I’m basing my observation on very limited data – what I see on my way to Middleville. Some fields look great, some look anemic. Could be very local.
I flew home from New York yesterday and they delayed our flight out of LaGuardia due to the storms (had a layover in Chicago before heading back to GR). Our flight was supposed to leave at 3:58 and we didn’t get off the ground until 5pm. We had some pretty rough turbulence (not the worst I’ve experienced but enough that a good half of the trip kept the seat belt lights on). Once we landed we only had 5 minutes to get to the next terminal to board (35 before taking off) so we hustled down only to find that flight delayed due to weather too. Although, they had a MUCH rougher flight apparently has they had to replace one of the seats due to a passenger “incident”. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry!
I’ve been whining about no rain – but still really glad that derecho left us alone! (I remember the ’98 derecho all too well). I’m afraid there will be MANY deaths due to this storm – not because the storm itself killed so many people, but because the relentless heat/no power for several days *might*?
This weather pattern reminds me of what is was like in the summer of 1988.
Mostly sunny today huh?
You questioned that yesterday and we ended up with 92% sun and we’ll probably be over 80% today.