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Late June 2012 storms


Ian

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but, i think derecho is now equated with what happened Friday in the minds of many and as much as i hate accuweather it was a super derecho especially in terms of the population density it impacted.

Not that there is any official naming procedure for these but the May 2009 central US derecho is generally referred to as "super derecho." Personally I'd give that title to the May 30-31, 1998 event. It's hard to beat this especially in terms of insane high-end wind reports.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/casepages/may30-311998page.htm

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Both the Friday storm and the July 2010 storms are very good learning experiences for me irt my own backyard.

July 2010 followed 3 days of very hot weather (close to 100 for 3 days straight). The bow echo looked angry as hell and my neighborhood took in on the chin. I had 3 large trees topped and roof damage.

I remember telling my wife on Friday night that the radar was looking like a much larger version of the 2010 storm. It was uncanny though how similar the radar looked though. The bow basically took the same path and the damage was incredibly similar. I suffered very little damage this go around but I have to think that the tree damage in 2010 is why. Same wind direction and strength. Not much left to break I guess.

I'm always going to be on high alert when organized convection breaks out during periods of very high heat (especially when ul flow is coming off the top of the ridge). I know this is met 101 stuff but these 2 events were very high impact and similar in many ways. Now that I have a much better handle at understanding the conditions leading up to these types of events it will help me be better prepared personally.

I didn't take the 2010 storm that seriously though. I stood by my sliding glass door watching the destruction happen....and then a branch came through the ceiling and missed my head by literally less than a foot. I got showered with insulation and drywall pieces. I've replayed that moment 100's if not 1000's of times in my mind too. On Friday night, we all took shelter in my basement pantry. 10x12 nook in my basement with 3 sides of cinderblocks. I'll never be caught exposed in the upper levels of my house again with this stuff.

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Not that there is any official naming procedure for these but the May 2009 central US derecho is generally referred to as "super derecho." Personally I'd give that title to the May 30-31, 1998 event. It's hard to beat this especially in terms of insane high-end wind reports.

http://www.spc.noaa....-311998page.htm

i didnt know there was actually a semi-official thing for super derecho. as far as high end wind im sure there are others that beat this one.. but if we're going to put june 4 2008 on the derecho list there is clearly a difference between events with this one covering a much larger area. though perhaps it's debatable whether or not the june 4 event was a derecho. i haven't personally measured the length from start to finish and assessed it against density of reports. ;)

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Looking at this article makes it look like the event was handled very well. Doesn't feel like though.

http://www.wtop.com/...rocious-derecho

i think the locals handled the day of (at least after the storms formed) fairly well considering. the bigger question is prior to the timeframe covered. also it's kind of generous to say spc put dc under a slight risk in the morning. the first d1 was nowhere close (didnt even cover ohio) and we didn't "officially" get into slight risk in dc till the 1630z update.

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Our power is out. The irony is that it made it through Fridays storm and last night's storm just fine. Never lost power until this morning at 8:30 because some trees are laying across lines in the neighborhood making for a "hazardous situation."

I've read some of the discussion from today but I'm on my phone and it would take the rest of the night to catch up, but I do not blame BGE for this. I am, however, ready to go knock a few of my neughbor's teeth out for not maintaining trees that they planted or allowed to grow into the power lines in their backyards. BGE comes through our hood every few years cutting back growth, but the swamp maples and other trash trees that grow rampant are impossible for them to keep up with.

So now it's going to be "a day to a week" before we get power back because I've got hillbilly neighbors that don't have enough sense to cut a figgin' tree before it grows into the power lines.

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A couple of suggestions.

The event could have been well timed and predicted starting around 8pm because all the parameters looked good and there was a healthy storm with a proven track record.

SPC probably should go with a PDS severe thunderstorm watch, which is almost exclusively used for derechos. Odds of severe criteara winds IMBY were way higher than a normal watch.

70mph winds are a lot different than 55mph winds making damage very challenging to predict. It There werent trees falling on people in Frederick.

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Peak wind gusts at CBIBS stations from Friday night’s event were (1 knot=roughly 1.15 miles/hour): (Reference Link)

  • Susquehanna: 37 knots
  • Patapsco: 44 knots
  • Annapolis: 49 knots
  • Upper Potomac: 46 knots
  • Gooses Reef: 57 knots
  • Potomac: 49 knots
  • Stingray Point: 71 knots
  • Jamestown: 45 knots
  • Norfolk: 39 knots
  • First Landing: 43 knots

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Trix, I do know that Channel 9 in DC cut in during programming right around 9 or a bit after. My wife was upstairs putting the kids to bed, and called to me because Topper Shutt (I believe) was zooming in on the cells that had been tornado-warned crossing Mineral and Morgan Cos.

He mentioned an expected path that would bring it to Hedgesville, which is just a short distance to my south. At that point we brought the kids back downstairs, but when I returned to the computer the internet connection was failing due to the storm.

Don't know how long 9 stayed with coverage, because at that point I was positioning where I usually do during heavy weather- in the center of my yard. :)

We just got home this evening to find the aftermath mess. We left for PA at 3PM Friday and missed the entire event. We heard from neighbors that the power didn't come until Sunday morning on our street...others unfortunately may have to wait until next weekend.

We just cleaned out the refrigerators, but that is the worse of it. No house damage and our trees made it through okay. Tree damage was spotty. A few houses down had major tree damage...weird stuff.

Of course my computer and web site shut down with the power and internet going out so I'm trying to download my data to see what the highest wind gust was on my station.

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Of course my computer and web site shut down with the power and internet going out so I'm trying to download my data to see what the highest wind gust was on my station.

I'm worried about my data. The Davis console only holds so much, and I have it on the 5min refresh. If the storm data was overwritten I'm going to be sad.

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I'm worried about my data. The Davis console only holds so much, and I have it on the 5min refresh. If the storm data was overwritten I'm going to be sad.

Send me a calendar of when you're out of town so I can forecast big events.

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I'm worried about my data. The Davis console only holds so much, and I have it on the 5min refresh. If the storm data was overwritten I'm going to be sad.

I have my database setting for 15 minutes. My highest gust recorded was only 19 mph from what I can tell. Apparently when VWS isn't running, it won't record the highest gust that occurs between the 15 minute intervals, only what's going on at the 15 minute mark.

All of my NOAA reports that the VWS software generates are messed up. It's going to take some time to sort through it and correct it. It's compounded because the power was out during the month to month changeover. It might be time to see what other kind of weather station software is out there and update my entire setup.

It looks like my electric went out before the storm arrived and my UPS only has about 10 mimutes of backup battery.

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If "Derechosaurus Wrecks" wins, I'm quitting.

Well at least on the plus side, nobody else will name another derecho that (unique name). With Snowmageddon, people used it for other snowstorms in other parts of the country in the following years.

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