JUNE 3, 2014 WEATHER ALERT: A major severe weather outbreak has begun across the central Plains Tuesday afternoon, with a possible "Derecho" [1] evolving during the overnight hours. The threats would be extremely heavy rain with flooding, large hail, and wind gust greater than 70 mph.
The northern extent of the thunderstorms will clip Chicago early Wednesday, June 4, 2014, morning, bringing the threat of flooding and headaches for the morning commute. It is possible local strong winds will reach part of Chicagoland as well.
PAST DERECHO ILLINOIS EVENTS:
- Illinois/Michigan Derecho - July 16, 1980
- I-94 Derecho - July 19, 1983
- Midwest Derecho - June 18, 2010
- Iowa-Illinois-Michigan-Ohio Derecho - July 11, 2011
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
[1] A DERECHO is called an "inland hurricane" due to the hurricane-like conditions that occur over land with this weather phenomenon. This term refers to a type of thunderstorm complex that is at least 240 miles wide. These violent severe thunderstorm clusters produce widespread and long-lived, straight-line wind damage. Hail, flooding and isolated tornadoes can also occur with Derechos. Making them even more dangerous, Derechos often occur at night. Fewer people may be aware of dangerous weather situations at night than during daylight hours.
On 8 MAY 2009, we had a MAJOR derecho here in southern Illinois. It had originated in Kansas, and went into Indiana before dying off. Locally, it followed IL 13 across the state, its path barely 3 miles N-S. While we bore the brunt along 13, Du Quoin (20 miles N) and Anna (20 miles S) were untouched.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2009_Southern_Midwest_derecho