May 31st, 1998 Derecho in Southeast Michigan

[wxhstn74]

http://weatherhistorian.blogspot.com/2012/05/what-rude-awakening-derecho-of-may-31st.html

[Hoosier]

In my opinion that is probably one of the worst derechos to ever strike the Great Lakes. The amount of high-end wind reports is pretty amazing.

[IWXwx]

That is an awesome radar loop. That can be a helpless feeling, KNOWING that it's going to hold together and cause widespread damage even when it's hundreds of miles away.Then to just sit and watch it scream toward you at 70 MPH.

That would be the one situation that I want to see a blanket tornado warning, just to give people a head's up of the severity of the situation. I know that many would disagree, but a severe t-storm warning just wouldn't so it justice, as there is no such thing as an enhanced t-storm warning. A justification would be that a brief spinup could occur anywhere along that line. On top of that, many people that witnessed that would think that they've been through a tornado with 70-100 MPH straight line winds.

[Hoosier]

That is an awesome radar loop. That can be a helpless feeling, KNOWING that it's going to hold together and cause widespread damage even when it's hundreds of miles away.Then to just sit and watch it scream toward you at 70 MPH.

That would be the one situation that I want to see a blanket tornado warning, just to give people a head's up of the severity of the situation. I know that many would disagree, but a severe t-storm warning just wouldn't so it justice, as there is no such thing as an enhanced t-storm warning. A justification would be that a brief spinup could occur anywhere along that line. On top of that, many people that witnessed that would think that they've been through a tornado with 70-100 MPH straight line winds.

I haven't seen any of the warnings from that day but in the past I have seen some offices issue a SVR and put something like "siren activation is suggested" when high-end straight line winds are expected. It would be interesting to see how a situation like this would be handled today. It seems like blanket tors have become more popular in recent years so perhaps that is what we'd see.

[SpartyOn]

How could anyone forget? That was a monster!!

[Stebo]

I remember waking up that morning at sunrise seeing a tornado watch out for our area. Also saw that line of storms approaching the area rapidly. As bad as we got it on this side of the state, the West side of the state and Wisconsin got it so much worse.

[kab2791]

I remember waking up to loud thunder and then the tornado sirens went off. It was after 6AM, but it was very dark out. I recall being taken to the basement, but in the end, there wasn't much damage in my neighborhood.

That radar loop is haunting.

[frostfern]

I remember that storm. My immediate neighborhood was mostly spared the worst of it. Just minor tree limb damage in our yard, but enough to lose power for several days due to all the damage elsewhere. It was strong enough some places to blow out windows and pull the roofs off homes and businesses. Some places had several minutes of sustained hurricane force winds.

I also remember the derecho on the evening of July 7, 1991. That one really did a number in my immediate neighborhood. There were distinct swaths where lots of trees were snapped off and lifted through the air. Some people swore there were tornadoes but it was more likely embedded wet microbursts. I was only 11 but I just remember an extremely dark green sky followed by a whiteout / wall of water coming in horizontally. I think some of the localized bursts must have been close to 100mph based on how trunks were snapped and tops of trees were flung through the air.

[Geos]

Another wider radar loop I found.

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/current/mcview.phtml?prod=lotrad&java=applet&mode=archive&frames=100&interval=5&year=1998&month=5&day=31&hour=4&minute=30

Don't remember this one - looks like it just clipped this area.

[Brewers]

This is one of my all time favorite storms, it was an absolute beast. Even though my area missed the the brunt of the winds, there was still quite of bit of tree damage in my neighborhood.

Multiple reports of 100+ mph winds throughout SE Wisconsin

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mkx/document/wind/images/derecho_5-31-98.gif

[smoof]

It was the worst storm ever for my back yard. I was watching it on radar that night and listening to the reports coming out of Wisconsin and trying to stay up all night waiting for it. It hit just after 6am that morning. The trees in my front yard were literally bending underneath the power lines (I figured the trees would hit the power lines but instead they had enough clearance to bend under them!). It sounded like the roof was going to blow off and the house was making creaking and cracking noises. I realized how bad the storm was when I turned on my radio later that day and there were only 2 channels that I could even tune in due to the massive power outages (instead of normally 25+ channels). I lost power for about 5 days. To this day you can still see some shredded and partially debarked pine trees where they got particularly hard hit a couple miles north of my location (I think there may have been a gustnado there or they just had a massive 110mph+ gust there).

[Stebo]

It was the worst storm ever for my back yard. I was watching it on radar that night and listening to the reports coming out of Wisconsin and trying to stay up all night waiting for it. It hit just after 6am that morning. The trees in my front yard were literally bending underneath the power lines (I figured the trees would hit the power lines but instead they had enough clearance to bend under them!). It sounded like the roof was going to blow off and the house was making creaking and cracking noises. I realized how bad the storm was when I turned on my radio later that day and there were only 2 channels that I could even tune in due to the massive power outages (instead of normally 25+ channels). I lost power for about 5 days. To this day you can still see some shredded and partially debarked pine trees where they got particularly hard hit a couple miles north of my location (I think there may have been a gustnado there or they just had a massive 110mph+ gust there).

MBS gusted to 75kts that day.

SPECI KMBS 311022Z 24038G75 5SM -TSRA SCT015 SCT050CB OVC100 20/19 A2948 RMK FRQ LGTCC E TS OVD-E MOV E

Pretty incredible to see an ASOS have a gust that high.

[GreatLakesWxMan]

I was working at GRR the night of the 31 May 1998 event...I was scheduled to work the day shift that Sunday and was called in at 3am (believe it or not there were only four of us at the office handling that event). I wrote the warnings/statements for that event...back in the day when we still had to write out the warning text. We basically did blanket severe thunderstorm warnings....one row of counties at a pop. The new line that developed over southwest Lower ahead of the main bow echo threw us a bit when we started getting reports of golf ball sized hail around Battle Creek (since we were geared up for the big blow). I recall we had a ton of spin ups along that line...lots of identifed mesocyclones from the 88D. Hindsight being 20/20 we probably could have put some TORs out during this event...but back then the theory of QLCS tornadogenesis was just in its infancy operationally and we weren't yet onto the idea of scrounging along the leading edge of convection looking for possible tornadic circulations (a bow echo was a bow echo and that was that). I remember the initial report coming in from Grand Haven of winds near 100mph and damage to a condominium complex a little after 5am...and Holland ASOS gusted to 66-67mph shortly thereafter. When the line went through airport at GRR I seem to recall the ASOS gusting to (only) 53kts (needless to say we were expecting something stronger)...not quite a strong as some of the reports we were getting from the north side of GRR (80-90mph winds). We later received a report (a day later, I think) of a measured gust of 138mph in Montcalm County...though I don't recall if we ever really determined the veracity of that report. Definitely worse from GRR north from a wind standpoint.

[SpartyOn]

That lone supercell over central Mi hours before the main show sparked my attention. The atmosphere must have been so souped ,charged & lifted.

[IWXwx]

I was working at GRR the night of the 31 May 1998 event...I was scheduled to work the day shift that Sunday and was called in at 3am (believe it or not there were only four of us at the office handling that event). I wrote the warnings/statements for that event...back in the day when we still had to write out the warning text. We basically did blanket severe thunderstorm warnings....one row of counties at a pop. The new line that developed over southwest Lower ahead of the main bow echo threw us a bit when we started getting reports of golf ball sized hail around Battle Creek (since we were geared up for the big blow). I recall we had a ton of spin ups along that line...lots of identifed mesocyclones from the 88D. Hindsight being 20/20 we probably could have put some TORs out during this event...but back then the theory of QLCS tornadogenesis was just in its infancy operationally and we weren't yet onto the idea of scrounging along the leading edge of convection looking for possible tornadic circulations (a bow echo was a bow echo and that was that). I remember the initial report coming in from Grand Haven of winds near 100mph and damage to a condominium complex a little after 5am...and Holland ASOS gusted to 66-67mph shortly thereafter. When the line went through airport at GRR I seem to recall the ASOS gusting to (only) 53kts (needless to say we were expecting something stronger)...not quite a strong as some of the reports we were getting from the north side of GRR (80-90mph winds). We later received a report (a day later, I think) of a measured gust of 138mph in Montcalm County...though I don't recall if we ever really determined the veracity of that report. Definitely worse from GRR north from a wind standpoint.

Thanks for posting your recollection. I appreciate the insight. Sounds like you really had your work cut out for you with only 4 of you working. That answers my questions about the warnings issued. I am assuming that you are now retired?

[GreatLakesWxMan]

Thanks for posting your recollection. I appreciate the insight. Sounds like you really had your work cut out for you with only 4 of you working. That answers my questions about the warnings issued. I am assuming that you are now retired?

Nope...in August 1998 I moved up to APX (in time for the supercell that blew through Gaylord on 26 September 1998 and the 10 November 1998 "Edmund Fitzgerald 2" storm)...and am still there (have a long way to go before retiring...I was just 29 when I was hired as a lead at APX).

[smoof]

I see this link wasn't posted so I'll post it here, it's my favorite writeup about the derecho, pretty cool when it makes it to the SPC's "about derechos" page.. http://www.spc.noaa....-311998page.htm

[frostfern]

I was working at GRR the night of the 31 May 1998 event...I was scheduled to work the day shift that Sunday and was called in at 3am (believe it or not there were only four of us at the office handling that event). I wrote the warnings/statements for that event...back in the day when we still had to write out the warning text. We basically did blanket severe thunderstorm warnings....one row of counties at a pop. The new line that developed over southwest Lower ahead of the main bow echo threw us a bit when we started getting reports of golf ball sized hail around Battle Creek (since we were geared up for the big blow). I recall we had a ton of spin ups along that line...lots of identifed mesocyclones from the 88D. Hindsight being 20/20 we probably could have put some TORs out during this event...but back then the theory of QLCS tornadogenesis was just in its infancy operationally and we weren't yet onto the idea of scrounging along the leading edge of convection looking for possible tornadic circulations (a bow echo was a bow echo and that was that). I remember the initial report coming in from Grand Haven of winds near 100mph and damage to a condominium complex a little after 5am...and Holland ASOS gusted to 66-67mph shortly thereafter. When the line went through airport at GRR I seem to recall the ASOS gusting to (only) 53kts (needless to say we were expecting something stronger)...not quite a strong as some of the reports we were getting from the north side of GRR (80-90mph winds). We later received a report (a day later, I think) of a measured gust of 138mph in Montcalm County...though I don't recall if we ever really determined the veracity of that report. Definitely worse from GRR north from a wind standpoint.

I'm wondering if there's been significant improvement in identifying where the stronger localized winds tend to occur along an extended bow echo. While 58mph is certainly enough to warrant a warning, the energy and destructive potential difference between a minimal severe gust and one in the 90-100 mph range is pretty extreme. It seems enough to warrant a higher level of warning.