Well, Blow Me Down! Inside A Derecho

At the age of 14, I was with my mother and her sister who loved fishing the banks of local creeks and streams in northern Indiana. July 4th, 1969 we were heading back to our cars, some distance away, when suddenly, what seemed to me to be the sound of a massive bee swarm, came over us but had no apparent source. In a brief moment later there was a sharp drop in the temperature. The change was shockingly cold. The change felt stingingly cold, but the the sight of our bright sunny day, turned almost instantly dark by roiling, ominous clouds, chilled me with horror. In a suddenly whipping wind, my aunt and mom hurried us to the cars. We had dealt with tornadoes before, but in my short life and experience with them, this was nothing like I had experienced before. While running, I worried we wouldn’t make it in time and I clearly remember wondering if this was the end of the world; it was that frightening.

This was years ago back when I was in school. How long ago? Think 31 years ago, that’s how long and I remember it well. Joplin Missouri I was in school trying out for track since I was fast on my feet back then, not that fast anymore, haha. But we were outside at the football field running track and we were there for the weather said clear day all day. I am guessing that these storms brews and comes quickly and passes just as fast. But I remember seeing this straight line of extremely dark clouds that with the way they look, looks like rolling waves on the ocean. I pointed it out to my coach by saying, “Tsunami in the sky coming this way.” She turned to see it coming it for us and immediately ordered everyone to go inside the locker building close by. Before we could make it there, we were in a rough downpour with winds that blew everyone down as we tried to make it inside. It only lasted about 20 mins at the most but it was enough to rip up the tree next to the field and land it across the track, blow over the basketball goal by bending the pole over. And the trashcans, well I am not sure that they found them all but they were no longer on the field or by the bleachers. It was a scary time for us that day. At first, I thought it was a tornado since I had yet to see one but learned that it was not but a line of wind and rain. It was a few years later that I saw my first tornado and believe me, I would rather see a few more tornadoes before going through another Derecho.

I was in the June 2012 Derecho in WV. It was devastating to many in this state. The sky got real dark and out of nowhere the wind was like hurricane force blowing down trees and powerlines. it was short lived with little rain, lightening or thunder. My son and his family were without power for 2 weeks because of the widespread damage.

July 2014 was camping on Madeline Island, Lake Superior. It was our last night camping. I can’t remember the exact time but it was in the middle of the night. We were in our pop up camper. I woke to a rumbling noise coming out of the east and it was getting closer and louder. I thought it may be thunder but it was a constant rumble. The wind picked up severely and it started pouring, We had the inside flaps partially down inside the camper for ventilation when the rain started coming in. My wife woke up, closed her flap, and fell back asleep. The wind died down soon after that and the rain subsided, but another rumbling soon followed, the wind picked up and the rain came. Mind you it is pitch black in the camper and in the woods where we were under 30 foot pine and birch trees and I’m waiting for trees to come crashing down. The storm finally passed. The next morning it was calm and we packed up quickly, drove not more than a mile when we saw tree limbs down, power lines and also some full trees down, one had crashed through a garage. Waiting at the harbor the car Ferry docks and unloads numerous electric company vehicles with basket cranes and a couple Red Cross vehicles so we are thinking that there was major damage or injuries on the island. We came to find out later that the Red Cross was there for a blood drive, but there were down power lines for the electric company to fix. It was a spooky storm in the darkness of the night and I can understand when people say tornadoes sound like trains rolling through. I posted comments on Facebook when we got back and had one of my high school buddies respond with a national weather radar map showing the path and strength of the derecho, a term I had never heard of. It started in North Dakota and swept into wisconsin within hours. It was tracked for 600 miles in 12 hours- 50 miles per hour! I would hate to be in any of the storms that people were talking about wind speeds of 90-100 mph. I still have the radar track on my computer.

I am no Spanish expert, but i remember derecha means right, derecho means straight or “straight ahead”. I think it is confusing because English speakers will use “its right up ahead”, meaning keep on this track, not turn right up ahead.