View Full Version : "Land Hurricane" tears thru from Ohio to the coast of the Mid-Atlantic
Mrs Baggins
06-30-2012, 14:52
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/deadly-super-derecho-strikes-m/67383
This is what we experienced last night. God help the hikers that were on the trail in this region. It must have been horrific. It was for those of us who were indoors. Around 8 pm radar images showed it to be around 100 miles west of us. By 9:30 pm it was right on top of us and roaring. The hikers not paying attention to warnings would have had little warning of what was coming. It wasn't out there and then it was right there. :eek:
teachergal
06-30-2012, 17:52
I live near Washington DC and I was thinking about the hikers during the storm! I hope everyone was ok!
Cookerhiker
06-30-2012, 20:32
Being at the outer edge of the storm didn't spare me from my neighbor's oak tree splintering apart bringing 2 large limbs crashing down, breaking through the fence between the yards, and coming to rest on my shed. The back yard is a total mess but could have been worse.16415
Hope all hikers are safe. The power of a falling tree is pretty scary.
WARNINGS. There were no warning if you were on the trail. Checked weather all week. Nothing was forecasted like what happen. The forecast was a 30% chance of showers. Got off the trail yesterday about 2;00 cause of the heat forecast. When I got home and saw the radar it was truely frieghtning
rocketsocks
06-30-2012, 20:46
WARNINGS. There were no warning if you were on the trail. Checked weather all week. Nothing was forecasted like what happen. The forecast was a 30% chance of showers. Got off the trail yesterday about 2;00 cause of the heat forecast. When I got home and saw the radar it was truly frighteningagree,I'm a bit of a weather junkie,and this thing just bloomed out of nothing,a disturbance along a low pressure wave and bam,it just grew,very strange anomaly.
I spent all day yesterday cleaning up after an epic amount of broken trees landed in a family member's yard a little closer to DC - what a mess! No power and no phone lines, probably won't be for another few days there. We're fine here in Loudoun County, but Fairfax looked like a hurricane passed through.
I would *not* have wanted to be out on the trail around here when that thing hit Friday night. I heard there were a few 85MPH gusts.
FarmerChef
07-02-2012, 01:56
I'm also in Loudoun about 10 miles due east of the trail and it looked like a tornado came through. Thought about the hikers, especially any camped between Bears Den and Harpers Ferry. Hope everyone stayed safe.
Being at the outer edge of the storm didn't spare me from my neighbor's oak tree splintering apart bringing 2 large limbs crashing down ...
Glad you're OK, Cooker. Mother Nature's fearsome when angry.
rocketsocks
07-02-2012, 11:28
Wow Is it any wonder why people didn't know it was coming. Weather systems on average travel about 600 miles per day, So if I see weather in Ohio in the morning, then I know by tomarrow morning we'll be getting that weather, usally. This thing traveld at 600 miles in 10 hours, that's crazy fast!. After going back and looking at the satalite radar, you can see it's birth, It is kinda like a base ball pitching machine with one wheel spinnig in one direction, counter clockwise, and the other spinning in the oppisite direction, clock wise motion, the low presure system and the high presure system just shot this thing out to start it on it's way. I have never heard the term 'Land Hurricane', but that's a very interesting concept,not sure it's correct, but then what da I know, I pour cream in my morning coffee and watch the all to short lived storm, every morning, love it. This storm just skirted my area, but left two young boys dead when a tree fell on there tent while they were camping down in south NJ, not 40 miles away, ya just never know how lucky you are untill you escape natures furry, pretty sad story indeed.
Mrs Baggins
07-02-2012, 12:09
I saw the term "land hurricane" used on Accu-weather.com. I'd never heard it before and I'm a pretty avid weather person. Like you said, you see a storm that far away and think "tomorrow afternoon it'll be here." So when I saw it at least 100 miles, maybe more, to the west at 8:00 pm - 8:30 pm and then at 9:30 pm saw the flashes of lightning I was pretty stunned. There hadn't been any cells that close to us. I even asked my hubby, "Did I just see lightning?" Then the sky opened up and the wind hit. We always get something like a 1/2 hour, sometimes more, of seeing the clouds build up, then some rumbling of thunder off in the distance, maybe a few flashes of lightning......but this was from nothing to everything in a heartbeat.
rocketsocks
07-02-2012, 12:24
I saw the term "land hurricane" used on Accu-weather.com. I'd never heard it before and I'm a pretty avid weather person. Like you said, you see a storm that far away and think "tomorrow afternoon it'll be here." So when I saw it at least 100 miles, maybe more, to the west at 8:00 pm - 8:30 pm and then at 9:30 pm saw the flashes of lightning I was pretty stunned. There hadn't been any cells that close to us. I even asked my hubby, "Did I just see lightning?" Then the sky opened up and the wind hit. We always get something like a 1/2 hour, sometimes more, of seeing the clouds build up, then some rumbling of thunder off in the distance, maybe a few flashes of lightning......but this was from nothing to everything in a heartbeat.Oh Mrs. B, I wasn't insinuating you were incorrect, I saw it written in the article, and I to heard it on the TV as well, and I don't think you were trying to jam me either, just wanted to clear that up. Yes very strange phenomenon, only seen a few of these in my life time, and only witnessed this one other time, back in the 70's,but I don't recall it being called a Derachio then. Just a windy day,and only remember some Pilots in my family decussing it.
teachergal
07-02-2012, 13:36
"Land Hurricane" is a more vivid description of what happened but the proper term is "Derecho" - The Capitol Weather Gang, a blog that is part of the Washington Post (and *the* expert on Washington weather!) wrote a great blog about it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/extraordinary-energy-friday-nights-derecho-in-washington-dc/2012/07/01/gJQAF2GFGW_blog.html#pagebreak
I heard them talking about a storm in Indiana around 6 pm and was wondering why that was news here - by 10:00 pm I knew why it was news here! Crazy! I live in Woodbridge (about 20 miles south of DC on 95) and we had very minimal damage here!
Mrs Baggins
07-02-2012, 15:07
Oh Mrs. B, I wasn't insinuating you were incorrect, I saw it written in the article, and I to heard it on the TV as well, and I don't think you were trying to jam me either, just wanted to clear that up. Yes very strange phenomenon, only seen a few of these in my life time, and only witnessed this one other time, back in the 70's,but I don't recall it being called a Derachio then. Just a windy day,and only remember some Pilots in my family decussing it.
No no no! I wasn't trying to say you thought I was wrong! :) Just wanted to point out where I'd seen the term. We spent 3 years living just north of Denver, where we often endured sustained winds of 70 mph in the summers, and I'd never heard that term there, either, or the "derecho" that the weather service is using - or "straight wind" - or something like that. We also lived in southern AZ, in Sierra Vista, next to Ft. Huachuca. Huachuca is and American Indian word (don't know which tribe) for "high winds" (and trust me, the place was aptly named!)- - and down there we never heard of a derecho. So this has all been quite fascinating!
Once, while living in (then)West Berlin Germany, in 1978, I was standing in front of our apartment building waiting for a bus. There was no sign of any approaching storms, and big t'storms in the summer were quite common there. Literally out of nowhere I saw a HUGE black mass appear over the apartment buildings across the street. I thought there was a terrible fire. Then it was just as suddenly overhead and the sky opened up. Winds, downpours, lightning...the whole thing. Now I'm wondering if it wasn't also a "land hurricane."
rocketsocks
07-02-2012, 15:13
No no no! I wasn't trying to say you thought I was wrong! :) Just wanted to point out where I'd seen the term. We spent 3 years living just north of Denver, where we often endured sustained winds of 70 mph in the summers, and I'd never heard that term there, either, or the "derecho" that the weather service is using - or "straight wind" - or something like that. We also lived in southern AZ, in Sierra Vista, next to Ft. Huachuca. Huachuca is and American Indian word (don't know which tribe) for "high winds" (and trust me, the place was aptly named!)- - and down there we never heard of a derecho. So this has all been quite fascinating!
Once, while living in (then)West Berlin Germany, in 1978, I was standing in front of our apartment building waiting for a bus. There was no sign of any approaching storms, and big t'storms in the summer were quite common there. Literally out of nowhere I saw a HUGE black mass appear over the apartment buildings across the street. I thought there was a terrible fire. Then it was just as suddenly overhead and the sky opened up. Winds, downpours, lightning...the whole thing. Now I'm wondering if it wasn't also a "land hurricane."Could have been, or a Micro burst,or it could have been that there El Nemo.:DKidding! that's what a friend calls it.
Duramax22
07-02-2012, 16:39
I live an hour or so north of cincinnati in ohio and we had some serious wind. Gutters torn off, barn roofs gone and lots and lots of trees down. The shell sign blew down at the gas station and took out the power with it. Still have about 2000 people in our area with no electric. Much more damage than the tornado in the spring
rocketsocks
07-02-2012, 17:14
I live an hour or so north of cincinnati in ohio and we had some serious wind. Gutters torn off, barn roofs gone and lots and lots of trees down. The shell sign blew down at the gas station and took out the power with it. Still have about 2000 people in our area with no electric. Much more damage than the tornado in the springWow, apparently stories are still coming in about just how much damage this 'Big Wind' caused. Amazing really!
Mother Natures Son
07-02-2012, 19:10
Got off the trail just in time! (It was over 100F in northern MD before the storm hit.) It got nasty fast. No reports of damage to the trail as of yet. As anyone heard from any thru-hikers on how they made it through the storm?
My hometown of Newark, Ohio was one of the harder hit towns in the area. about 50,000 people and as of friday night only 1,200 had power. Still 39,000+ without power in the county. I went out after the storm and it was like a maze trying to get around town. Downed trees blocking the streets everywhere. Downed power lines, trees on cars, roofs missing. It's a mess to say the least. The local paper, the Newark Advocate had an article about it in yesterdays paper if anyone's interested. I'd post a link,but I'm not sure how to do it from my phone. They don't expect power to be fully restored until at least July 8th.
About_Time
07-03-2012, 20:43
A few thru hikers talking about the storm:
http://www2.wsls.com/news/2012/jul/03/appalachian-trail-hikers-describe-weathering-frida-ar-2032668/
rocketsocks
07-03-2012, 21:06
A few thru hikers talking about the storm:
http://www2.wsls.com/news/2012/jul/03/appalachian-trail-hikers-describe-weathering-frida-ar-2032668/thanks for that, About_time.
Bear Cables
07-03-2012, 21:06
A similar weather event happened the summer of 99 or 2000, not quite sure which summer. We were headed to Elly MN to canoe the boundry waters with our scout troop. Even though we were miles away the night of, we were on the edge of the storm on the shores of Lake Huron. The winds came from nowhere and toppled tents with our scouts in them. When we got to Ely were realized how bad it was. All canoe trips were rerouted to the West as everything in the east was devastated.
Bear Cables
07-03-2012, 21:09
My hometown of Newark, Ohio was one of the harder hit towns in the area. about 50,000 people and as of friday night only 1,200 had power. Still 39,000+ without power in the county. I went out after the storm and it was like a maze trying to get around town. Downed trees blocking the streets everywhere. Downed power lines, trees on cars, roofs missing. It's a mess to say the least. The local paper, the Newark Advocate had an article about it in yesterdays paper if anyone's interested. I'd post a link,but I'm not sure how to do it from my phone. They don't expect power to be fully restored until at least July 8th.
.
I totally get how hard this situation is. We live on the northshore of New Orleans and all our damage from Katrina was severe wind damage. Power was out for weeks. We lived in our house with only a generator for 4 weeks! Hope you get back to normal much quicker!
Thanks. The power is slowly coming back, I just got it back today, although it could be another 3-5 days for some. while ot has been declared a disater area or state od emergency or something like that,it's not quite Katrina. More of an inconvenience than anything. It'll be back to normal soon. Thanks for your concern though.
topshelf
07-03-2012, 22:19
I was on the mountain in between TRIMPI shelter and Dickey Gap that evening. I heard the wind in the distance, but noticed the clouds weren't moving. Couldn't figure out what was going on. It went from no wind to blowing 50-60 miles an hour. Then on Sunday morning I was in the shower and the power went out. We ended up getting another round of it, and then again Sunday night.
coldspring
07-03-2012, 23:00
A derecho hit the Missouri Ozarks in May of 2009 and damaged over 40 miles of the Ozark Trail. Some areas only had 100 blowdown trees per mile, other areas had perhaps 90% of the trees blown down. The trail tread itself was severely altered due to thousands of rootwads uprooted leaving holes. Imagine walking through nothing but fallen trees that have had a "hallway" cut through them, that's what the derecho left.
rocketsocks
07-03-2012, 23:12
When all is said and done, I'm thinking this wind is gonna surpass in cost that of a real bad tornado, just because it traveled so much further than tornado's do.
I live in south Carolina, and then storm got us too. Really nasty. I can't believe we didn't have any damage. Lost power for around 8 hours. I can't imagine being outside stuck walking around in that. Hard to find a place to hunker down and be safe, I'm sure.
my mother in law is still without power, was told it would be next week before she's back online...SE ohio
Andy
glad I moved