Derecho Storm Facts.

Here are some of the facts that I have gathered about the horrific storms that ravaged the area last Friday afternoon.

Originally, the storms formed along a boundary that separated warm, moist air from warm, dry air to the north. The storms formed in far Western Illinois as the boundary lifted northward. An upper level disturbance initiated the violent thunderstorms, and caused them to move eastward into the Chicago area, producing winds of over 60 mph at the time.  In our area, temperatures were quickly warming into the middle 90's, with moist air moving into the region from the southwest, with dew points eventually approaching the low to middle 70's just before the storms hit the Fort Wayne area. Due to the highly unstable and potent air mass in existence across the area, the storms strengthened rapidly as they left Chicago. At the same time, the storms followed the boundary southeastward into the Fort Wayne. Minutes before the first gust of wind hit the Fort Wayne area, Doppler Radar recorded winds of almost 100 mph at an altitude of 2500 feet above the surface, right before that same patch of winds hit the Downtown area.  It was hard for anyone to prepare for the onslaught that was coming, as the line of storms, called a derecho (De-RAY-sho), were moving at a forward speed of nearly 80 mph! Most storms only move at speeds of 20 to 30 mph. As the storms moved through Fort Wayne, the line once again rapidly intensified in the still highly unstable environment. According to the Storm Prediction Center, a wind gust of 91 mph was recorded at Fort Wayne one of the highest wind speeds ever recorded in the area, while winds of 88 mph just to the northeast of Fort Wayne, producing incredible damage, with widespread tree and structural damage all throughout the city. As the storms strengthened, Doppler Radar also detected strong rotation as the storms passed over New Haven. The National Weather Service then issued a Tornado Warning for East Allen County, Paulding County, and Van Wert County. By the time the storms hit Antwerp, winds of almost 80 mph were reported, according to the Storm Prediction Center (National Weather Service), with even greater damage and widespread tree damage throughout the town. When the storms hit Paulding, a wind gust of 84 mph was recorded near PCH hospital. Even though the storms were extremely violent, they produced minimal rainfall amounts, with most areas seeing a quarter to a third of an inch of rain. Even the highest rainfall amounts were only in the range of 0.4 to 0.5 inches. These storms continued to strengthen as they moved southeast out of the area, knocking out power to almost 700,000 households in the state of Ohio. In fact, the derecho continued all the way to the Mid-Atlantic and out into the ocean, causing considerable damage and widespread communication failures in cities such as Washington D.C. Even though the storms cause more damage in the Eastern states then here, we still recorded the highest wind speeds of the entire event! According to the National Weather Service, this is likely one of the worst storms ever to hit the Northeast Indiana, Northwest Ohio region, and likely one of the worst derecho/squall line events in the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley states ever recorded. At one point, the storms caused a total of more than 3 million power outages at the same time, more power outages than Hurricane Irene produced in the Mid-Atlantic states. From what I have heard on news sites and other places, 22 deaths were attributed to be a direct result of the storm, most of them were from people smashed by trees. This will go down as one of the worst derecho events to the United States, behind the series of derechoes that hit the Upper Midwest in 1995 and '96.

I will be writing an article about the formation of derechoes, and how we can prepare for them, in a couple of weeks.