The Mid-Atlantic weather event of the decade (snow/ice storms not included)

[PrinceFrederickWx]

Snow/ice events not included (because we all know what would win that one). Similar style events are grouped together to make it more competitive, so it's not necessarily chronological. Most choices are region-wide events. If your vote is "Other" please list it in comments- voting for snow/ice storms in "Other" is NOT allowed; anything else occuring during winter is acceptable.

I'll be adding to this list over the next year or so (if anything big happens). Also, if I forgot an important event and someone mentions it, I'll add it in.

Vote!

[Cobalt]

My memory goes from derecho onward, but still the derecho takes the cake. The timing & the aftermath (Of course the heat afterwards), made it an extreme event. Pretty sure we lost power from midnight of June 29th (or whatever time the derecho started) up to July 6th. With 2 dogs we had to get to our grandparent's house (3 hours away), where they had a generator. Those 2 days we spent in our house with no AC in 90 degree+ heat was unbearable

[Cobalt]

Feb 2015 cold was pretty memorable too. Only time we'd ever had school cancellations due to cold weather

[PrinceFrederickWx]

1 hour ago, Cobalt said:

Feb 2015 cold was pretty memorable too. Only time we'd ever had school cancellations due to cold weather

I haven't voted yet, but I'm leaning towards that choice, as it's (in my opinion) the least likely event we'll ever see again in the next 50 years.

[NorthArlington101]

Feb 2015 cold was pretty memorable too. Only time we'd ever had school cancellations due to cold weather

Fairfax cancelled due to cold this year

Vote definitely is for the 2011 Derecho though. That’s as wild as it gets around here.

[GramaxRefugee]

6 hours ago, Cobalt said:

... Those 2 days we spent in our house with no AC in 90 degree+ heat was unbearable

I hope none of the old guys points out that when we were your age the whole summer...well never mind.

(At least we could drink ice water though. With power out, you can't even do that.)

Derecho was my first choice too

[fourseasons]

Absolutely the derecho.  I was reading this board as it was rolling along and left work early so I could go to the place where I was housesitting to bring in the deck furniture.  I made it with about 10 minutes to spare so while I was both driving and on the deck I could see it coming.  When it arrived conditions went from 0 to holy (expletive) in a matter of seconds.  I do regret to this day that there was someone sitting outside while I was taking care of the deck furniture and I didn't yell at him to get indoors immediately.

[Jandurin]

Wasn't it like 11 o'clock at night

[PrinceFrederickWx]

Honestly I’m a little surprised Irene hasn’t received a single vote.

[Jandurin]

7 hours ago, PrinceFrederickWx said:

Honestly I’m a little surprised Irene hasn’t received a single vote.

Derecho seems to have a bit of an unfair advantage, making other results meaningless.

[PrinceFrederickWx]

9 minutes ago, Jandurin said:

Derecho seems to have a bit of an unfair advantage, making other results meaningless.

Derecho was meh IMBY so I'm least likely to pick that one. There's several events I could vote for but I ultimately decided to go with Irene for IMBY impacts.

[Jandurin]

Derecho was pretty badass in Columbia (sideways trees and whatnot) but I had to sleep to get up at 4AM so I tuned it out and went to sleep.

 

Driving to the Bay the next morning to go fishing at 6AM was a bit of an adventure (lights out trees down).

 

But it was still just a strong thunderstorm IMBY - rivaled by others. The only real aspect that made it so impressive was its widespread effects, not its IMBY aspects, from my experience.

[Eskimo Joe]

Derecho hands down.

[Fozz]

Probably Sandy. The derecho wasn't as impressive here as it was to my south.

[MN Transplant]

This is a tricky question because it depends on whether you view it in a IMBY sense.  It is also difficult to compare a distinct event (severe weather) to a climate-scale event (heat wave).

 

Top distinct event:  Derecho

IMBY distinct event:  TS Lee remnants

Climate event:  2010-12 heat waves

 

 

[PrinceFrederickWx]

34 minutes ago, MN Transplant said:

This is a tricky question because it depends on whether you view it in a IMBY sense.  It is also difficult to compare a distinct event (severe weather) to a climate-scale event (heat wave).

 

Top distinct event:  Derecho

IMBY distinct event:  TS Lee remnants

Climate event:  2010-12 heat waves

 

 

You can use whatever criteria you want to vote- IMBY impacts, region-wide impacts, or how anomalous the event was. It's up to you. I weighted IMBY more in my choice, but that's just me.

[clskinsfan]

I almost picked the Derecho. But the wind storm this year was pretty damn impressive out here. It was the most consistent heavy wind that I have ever seen out this way. And the sheer number of power outages throughout the region give it my vote.

[CoolHandMike]

24 minutes ago, clskinsfan said:

I almost picked the Derecho. But the wind storm this year was pretty damn impressive out here. It was the most consistent heavy wind that I have ever seen out this way. And the sheer number of power outages throughout the region give it my vote.

That was pretty intense. I was actually camping out in southern Delaware when it rolled through. Rode it out with a buddy in my car, resumed camping in the rain afterwards, had a good time. Didn't really understand the scale of destruction until watching the news the next day.

So many impactful events over the last ten years though. Sandy, for sure, but further inland we actually suffered worse under Irene.

[Eskimo Joe]

I think so many people chose the Derecho for 3 reasons:

1. It was relatively unpredicted.  There was some wavering meso guidance in the 12 to 18 hours leading up to the event of an MCS coming through, but nothing to the extent that happened.
2. It occurred very late at night.  Most of the severe weather in this happens before 9pm and this was almost 2 hours outside our climo window.  
3. The heat that followed the storm was significantly magnified by the event.  So many people lost power that it essentially shoved folks back 20 or 30 years to the 70s and 80s when not many people had AC.  It was rather anomalous.

[Jandurin]

I would have gotten a hotel room if I'd lost power.

[WEATHER53]

I went with heatwave mostly to be able to include the incredible summer thunderstorms of 2010 

3 occasions of gusts to 70, 50 yr old tree destruction, NWS surveyed  the end of June one and stated wind streaks of 80/90 had occurred in the area 

[Jandurin]

9 hours ago, Tenman Johnson said:

I went with heatwave mostly to be able to include the incredible summer thunderstorms of 2010  3 occasions of gusts to 70, 50 yr old tree destruction, NWS surveyed  the end of June one and stated wind streaks of 80/90 had occurred in the area  

 

Yeah.

Only time I ever bought a house then 5 months later had 1/3 of a tree fall on my garage.

Luckily only damaged my gutter but that was a wicked time period

Snows of 09-10 then that summer

Considering that duration as a whole would definitely be the most active imby

Literally June 2010 we must've had some insane micro burst because I've never seen anything like that

The derecho was just whatever in comparison.

[PrinceFrederickWx]

13 minutes ago, Tenman Johnson said:

I went with heatwave mostly to be able to include the incredible summer thunderstorms of 2010 

3 occasions of gusts to 70, 50 yr old tree destruction, NWS surveyed  the end of June one and stated wind streaks of 80/90 had occurred in the area 

Yes I remember those- I was actually going to include some but I figured no one would know what I was talking about.

Best one was 7/18/2010 when I lived in Glen Burnie. 72mph gusts at BWI! I got a video of that storm but it was late at night.

When I was making this list I realized just how insane that whole period from 2010-2012 was- for like everything.

[Bob Chill]

I went with Irene. The derecho was awesome but it was a hit and run. I had a microburst hit in July 2009 that was worse in my yard than the derecho. Also put a tree branch through my roof so memorable to say the least. The derecho was just an hour of wind with a power outage. 

I like long duration exciting events with a tracking exercise involved. Irene wasnt a huge event but it was a fun track for sure and it hit close enough. The recent wind event is #2. That was really impressive and unlikely to happen again. 

Heat does nothing for me. A heatwave will never be exciting. My all time favorite non winter event is Isabel. When we get a cat 4 up the bay with a left turn at point lookout I'll be satisfied with non winter stuff for life. Maybe this summer....

[MDstorm]

I had to go with the Ellicott City flood because I was there, caught in the flood.  I have never seen such heavy rainfall.  Hours of downpours.  Streets and parking lots turned into raging rivers, restaurants filling with water, and cars being swept away (including my own car ).  If you weren't actually there, you really can't appreciate how devastating it was.  Actually, that was the second weather event during the summer of 2016 that impacted my world.  Several weeks earlier, my neighborhood was directly hit by a tornado causing extensive damage.  I certainly got my money's worth out of my insurance company that summer.

 

MDstorm

[osfan24]

Derecho or Ellicott City flooding, with the February 15 cold for honorable mention. All the tropical storms/Sandy were duds at my house. There was some wind, but it wasn't anything I don't see from strong fall/winter cold fronts and the rain wasn't prolific. Isabel and Floyd are the two tropical systems that register on my list. Isabel forced me to leave UMCP for a couple days because my power was out and it did some major damage along coastal areas. Floyd got me two days off of school and put down a ton of trees.

[nw baltimore wx]

5 hours ago, MDstorm said:

I had to go with the Ellicott City flood because I was there, caught in the flood.  I have never seen such heavy rainfall.  Hours of downpours.  Streets and parking lots turned into raging rivers, restaurants filling with water, and cars being swept away (including my own car ).  If you weren't actually there, you really can't appreciate how devastating it was.  Actually, that was the second weather event during the summer of 2016 that impacted my world.  Several weeks earlier, my neighborhood was directly hit by a tornado causing extensive damage.  I certainly got my money's worth out of my insurance company that summer.

 

MDstorm

I'll put this at the top of my list too. I wasn't there when it happened but we lost power during the storm and went out for a drive to charge cell phones and ended up down there. Unbeknownst to us, the whole thing was playing out as we were making the 20 minute trip. My gf was reading aloud a few tweets saying there was a lot of flooding, but the videos weren't circulating yet and nothing prepared us for what we saw. We were on the Baltimore county side of the bridge near Oella and cars were piled up everywhere. Even watching the search and rescue teams carefully making their way through the wreckage, we still didn't appreciate the magnitude. It wasn't until the drive home that my gf made me pull over to watch the videos that were showing up online did we see the full scale.

[87storms]

#1 should be the earthquake (not weather, but incredibly rare here).

my #1 in the list is the derecho.  strobe light-ning is pretty rare.

the ellicott city flooding is up there as well, though since i didn't experience it firsthand it's difficult for me to put it at #1.  the vids of it are crazy though.

[T. August]

March 2nd wind. Gusts 65+, sustained 45. Lost power for 4 days. Trees down everywhere. Shingles ripped from the roof.

[KingJWx]

The 2012 derecho is easily the most impressive non-winter event for MBY, but this year's March windstorm was more impactful than I thought it was going to be.