OT. Iowa storm damage (2025 Update)

Yes, the name is unusual. They've been using it in the popular press for--what?--20 years, perhaps. But meteorologists have been using it for much longer than that. Like the polar vortex, the scientific term was slow to make it to the newspapers.

I recall one that came through Ann Arbor in the late 70s or early 80s. That was an oddball; they usually stay below the Great Lakes.

Cindy Hamilton

The news people along with a few meteorologists seem to me making up names these days for damned near anything.

Fancy words are an attempt to make up for the fact that the best they can do is say it might rain today.

I've been lucky. I've lived in over a dozen places in this country and I've never lived anywhere that they couldn't forecast the weather for the next 3 days or so. It gets a bit sketchy when they try to go out to 10 days or even more.

On 8/14/2020 1:37 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote: ...

It's a well-known phenomenon -- the term "derecho" is from the Spanish that translates literally as "direct," or "straight ahead."

The term was first used in 1888 by Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs, a professor of physics at the University of Iowa in a paper published by the American Meteorological Journal. He introduced it to distinguish thunderstorm-induced straight-line winds from the damaging, rotary winds of tornadoes.

The latter was taken near Ft Supply, OK, in 2001, not all that far from us...east of us already, although it formed north and west of us -- the peak recorded wind speed in KS was 100 mph near Garden City about 60 mi N, 70-80 mph here...we had just come back to the farm couple years prior; first one I had seen the climatology on although I'm sure several of the "big blows" I remember growing up were associated with similar events; we just didn't have the radar or other weather stations to be able to capture the scope then.

I've got some pictures somewhere...

With the modern ECMWF, NAM and GFS forecasts, ten days out has gotten much better than just five years ago. It's not perfect, given the chaotic systems involved it may never be, but it's pretty damned good.

Derecho was used in the late 1880s by a meteorologist.

I wish they'd stop naming snowstorms, though. That's just dumb.

Cindy Hamilton

Listen to the AgriTalk radio in AM; the head of the IA Co-operatives association said just one of their member co-ops lost over 200 large grain bins. That'll wreak havoc with harvest only a short time away; some of these facilities may not be able to have any operational storage other than ground/tube by then...

We just had one of those pop up storms hit. It didn't amount to anything rain wise but made some noise. It's not terribly unusual for one spot to get an inch or two and someone a few miles away get nothing. I can sure see why weather is still educated guessing even with all the modern technology.

I bet the guys selling corn reels and roller cones for the corn heads will be busy. The coops here can get away with just piling corn on the ground temporarily if need be. Average precipitation is about 25"/year.

Spanish for "straight". Also known (at least north of the 49th) as a "Plough wind" or a "Prarie Hurricaine" - Also a "downburst. Very uncommon to last for 700+ miles like this one

"The only constant is change" "If you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes" and it's corollary "If you LIKE the weather, just wait 5 minutes".

The weather forcasters seem to be getting better,just as the weather gets more unpredictable. When they say 60% chance of rain in soutwestern ontario lately it means 60% of the area will see a few deops of rain sometime during the day. Generally Elmira and Stratford as well as Cambridge and Brantford get a bit of rain, and Waterloo stays Dry. We seem to be in a rain-shadow due to the wind direction from the south west - areas to the north-west get rain from the winds over Lake Huron, The southern areas get it from winds over Lake Erie, and our wind just crossed Lake St Clair and the Detroit River, which doesn't provide much moisture.

You don't think there is going to be a LOT of "home repair" required from 120MPH winds?????

The vast majority will be a total loss. The ears won't mature with the stocks broken off and/or the roots pulled out. Much of the storage, sadly, will not be required this year.

Well it might.

One time in a small tourist town in Mexico, I was looking for a cheap hotel. I was already out of the center of town and I asked a guy who lived there, Where is a cheap hotel? He pointed the way I had come and said "Derecho".

So I went to the corner and turned right. Because derecha meant right and I didn't realize there was another similar word.

I walked a couple blocks and there were no hotels, so I asked someone and he pointed the way I had come from, and said "Derecho." So I walked to the corner (which was not the street I'd been on first) and turned right.

Again I walked a couple blocks and found no hotels. t think I found one pretty soon after.

On 8/14/2020 10:21 PM, Clare Snyder wrote: ...

But by definition a derecho is a continuous bow front; it is formed by individual downburst events coalescing into one. The line must be 400 km or longer and include >=58 mph wind along most of the length to be classified as such (US NWS definition).

There are two types of derechos depending upon the type of initiation and atmospheric dynamics; "progressive" and "serial".

describes them...the progressive type is the longer distance in general and also more difficult to predict.

The vast majority will be a total loss. The ears won't mature with the stocks broken off and/or the roots pulled out. Much of the storage, sadly, will not be required this year.

Much of their grain handling capabilities were damaged as well; just handling what does come in will be difficult at best.

Much grain production will be impacted undoubtedly; it'll depend upon just how much was actually broken/uprooted vs how much just lodged and can come back up.

They'll chop virtually everything that isn't going to make grain so it won't be a total loss but definitely not the same as making cash grain crop.

The annual field tour begins I believe next week; they'll begin to get a handle on losses as those yield predictions are compiled.

--