Astonishing images of the moment apocalyptic 'derecho' superstorm battered New York

[n2doc]

By BETH STEBNER, LOUISE BOYLE and EMINE SINMAZ
Two people were killed and more than 100,000 homes and businesses in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania were without electricity Friday morning after ferocious thunderstorms swept through the region.
A state of emergency and curfew were in effect in Elmira, New York, this morning after a suspected tornado toppled power lines and trees and hospitals were placed on disaster alert.
Only emergency vehicles allowed on the streets until 8 am while the damage was cleared, Chemung County Office of Fire and Emergency Management spokeswoman Karen Miner said.




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2179504/Superstorm-strikes-East-Coast-At-300-000-power-TORNADO-sweeps-New-York.html

[kimbutgar]

1. Reminds me of the movie Day after Tommorow

Awesome pictures though.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. My cousin likened it to Ghostbusters.

[GoCubsGo]

77. That was my first thought, too.

In some of the other photo I saw, I was expecting Zuul's arrival.

[Rhiannon12866]

47. You are so right!

That was my first thought, too! Yikes!

[lunatica]

53. My reaction also

I wonder what it looks like from Space.

[Thav]

55. I like that movie, and that's what I though too.

"Extreme weather? CRITICAL DESALINIZATION POINT!"

I like the one point in the movie where all the birds are flying south and no one seems to worry. I'd be all "PACK YOUR STUFF, WE'RE FOLLOWING THEM!"

[xxqqqzme]

59. I thought the same thing!

Looks like movie special FX taking over the skies.

[Fridays Child]

79. My first thought, as well.

Maybe because the film was on TV a few days ago but this photo evokes a sense of foreboding that totally reminds me of it.

[lapfog_1]

2. Every time I read the word "derecho"

I think this guy is saying it

[xtraxritical]

37. I lived in Chicago for 30 years and I never ever heard the term "derecho", who invented this?

What does it mean?

[liberal N proud]

39. This year is the first I ever heard the term

Grew up in Iowa and lived in Missouri for many years.

Derecho is another term for the weatherman's stormgasm.

[Uncle Joe]

46. Here you go.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derecho

This image shows derecho frequency for the lower 48 United States



Derecho

A derecho ( /dəˈreɪtʃoʊ/; Spanish pronunciation: [deˈɾetʃo]; deh-REH-cho) is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms. Generally, derechos are convection-induced and take on a bow echo form of squall line, forming in an area of wind divergence in the upper levels of the troposphere, within a region of low-level warm air advection and rich low-level moisture. They travel quickly in the direction of movement of their associated storms, similar to an outflow boundary (gust front), except that the wind is sustained and increases in strength behind the front, generally exceeding hurricane-force. A warm-weather phenomenon, derechos occur mostly in summer, especially during June and July in the Northern Hemisphere, within areas of moderately strong instability and moderately strong vertical wind shear. They may occur at any time of the year and occur as frequently at night as during the daylight hours.

Derecho comes from the Spanish word for "straight" (cf. "direct&quot in contrast with a tornado which is a "twisted" wind.[1] The word was first used in the American Meteorological Journal in 1888 by Gustavus Detlef Hinrichs in a paper describing the phenomenon and based on a significant derecho event that crossed Iowa on 31 July 1877.[2]

(snip)

Winds in a derecho can be enhanced by downburst clusters embedded inside the storm. These straight-line winds may exceed 100 mph (160 km/h) (in some cases, sustained wind) in these clusters and straight-line wind gusts of up to 200 mph (320 km/h) are possible in the most extreme cases.[citation needed] Tornadoes sometimes form within derecho events, although such events are often difficult to confirm due to the additional damage caused by straight-line winds in the immediate area.

(snip)

Unlike other thunderstorms, which typically can be heard in the distance when approaching, a derecho seems to strike suddenly. Within minutes, extremely high winds can arise, strong enough to knock over highway signs and topple large trees. These winds are accompanied by spraying rain and frequent lightning from all directions. It is dangerous to drive under these conditions, especially at night, because of blowing debris and obstructed roadways. A derecho moves through quickly, but can do much damage in a short time.

There is more on the link.

[hedgehog]

69. I saw a similiar map on the NOAA site. Note how out of date it is!

One derocho every two years in the entire pale green area!

The Noaa site also gives a listing of derochos, year by year. It looks like the frequency is rising!

[onehandle]

3. We watched come through downtown Philly on the way to NYC.

Came in like a steamroller.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Great photos.

[nc4bo]

5. Ugly, magnificent clouds.

Just read a NYT article about another scary effect of these super storms coupled with climate change and how it could effect the U.S. ozone layer.

Seems farfetched at first but watching how violently impressive these storms have become maybe it isn't so farfetched.

No absolutes but they are studying them intensely.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/science/earth/strong-storms-threaten-ozone-layer-over-us-study-says.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fnational%2Findex.jsonp

[RedStateLiberal]

7. Awesome photos!

Really Awesome.

[MadHound]

8. Funny thing is, out here west of the Mississippi we get one of those about every year,

And it doesn't make the news.

But have one on the East Coast, it is the top news story for days.

[justabob]

9. I know! That is what I was thinking.

I get it that it is rare there, but seeing clouds like that is "normal" for storms in Texas. It *is* beautiful and they are great photos though.

[MadHound]

12. Wonderful photographs,

And yes, it isn't normal for the East Coast, but still. . .

It takes the destruction of half a town by a tornado to make news(Joplin last year), but a big storm out east and the media buzzes for days.

[justabob]

20. .

I drove through Joplin last year, about six months after their tornado(s). It was incredible to see. The neighborhoods with slab after slab and one house then more slabs....still tarped roofs, and the very worst.... the homes that still had debris and paper and clothing etc spilling out of a ruined house, seemingly not touched since the fateful day. I assumed those people either died or just abandoned Joplin altogether. I had to pull over and just cry and cry. I have never seen anything like it.

[xmas74]

27. And yet

it looks so much better than it did just a couple of months before you drove through. Joplin has practically fallen off the radar of national news, even though they are really trying to be innovative in their rebuilding efforts. Same thing with Greensburg-it should have been featured constantly, showing how incredible their rebuild was, how innovative, how "green" and enviro-friendly. It just didn't happen.

[justabob]

34. I am sure

I didn't mean to imply that it should have been all back to normal, just marveling that it was hit SO hard. I can only imagine what it has been like for the people of Joplin. Do you live there? I will never forget what I saw, and I can only imagine what it was like in the days and weeks immediately after the storms. Even the worst hit neighborhoods in Dallas(this year hit by 14? twisters, but none greater than EF3), weren't nearly like what I witnessed in MO.

[xmas74]

44. I live about two hours from there

but went through about a month after. My church was down there three weeks after the tornado hit.

Joplin was a punch to the gut. It drew the same reaction as Katrina, at least for me. I knew someone who had family from Reading, KS. (Town was hit in the same time, by the same storm-no one ever talks about it.) That town was destroyed. And Sedalia was hit just a few days later-big time damage, though nothing like Joplin.

[MadHound]

32. I went down there about a year afterwards,

And while the damage is still to be seen, it is amazing how quickly people are rebuilding and the town coming back to life.

Of course now, like everywhere else around here, it is getting baked in this hot, dry summer. One thing after another.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

21. Don't know why they threw in the Empire State Building.

I live in Jersey City and it was just a mild thunderstorm. Upstate New York gets the heavy snow and thunderstorms.

[TeamPooka]

64. the media doesn't like to work

but if a story happens right outside their window they are on it.

[ieoeja]

10. Funny thing is, in New York they get a 6" snow fall every year,

And it doesn't make the news.

But have one in the desert southwest, it is the top news story for days.

[MadHound]

14. Really?

Frankly I haven't heard of any kind of snowfall in the desert southwest.

[Chorophyll]

15. The storm wasn't even that bad in NYC.

I know -- I'm only 20 miles north. But the media is concentrated here, so every weather event is The Apocalypse.

ETA: Which is not to suggest that conditions have not been unusual this year, but the reportage is usually unnecessarily hysterical and climate change is mentioned rarely, if at all.

[MadHound]

17. Well hell, let's move that media out here to Missouri,

They would die of a nervous breakdown before their first spring storm season was done.

The year before I moved out to the country, there were at least six tornadoes that rolled through the surrounding area. The trailer on the property I bought caught a glancing blow(but was still damaged). We had massive thunderstorms, hail the size of baseballs, and yet none of this made much news outside the immediate area.

But one big thunderstorm out east and the media is all over it. Hell, I didn't even know those storms had a special name, derecho, until this year. We just call them a big ass storm.

[Chorophyll]

18. 24-hour cable news has to have something to talk about.

I mean, they could fill up that time with substantive analysis of all kinds of issues, INCLUDING the weather, but that doesn't get ratings.

And yes, I always say that we get off pretty lightly around here, weather-wise. Not always, but for the most part.

[MadHound]

24. Frankly I think that the 24 hour cable news cycle is a large part of what is wrong in this country

But we can't put that genie back in the bottle, sadly.

So I say ship the media out to the Plains states next spring, and I'll lead them on my own personal storm chase.

I wouldn't say the East coast gets off easy weather wise, you folks get massive snow, or hurricanes, or both. Having been through massive snow and a hurricane, I can say I don't want to do much of either soon. But tornadoes and big storms simply don't bother me that much. I guess you grow used to what you grow up with.

I'm one of those people who actually like towering storms, and I'll be that idiot you see out in his backyard whooping and hollering as the tornado eats the houses one block over. And there are lots of people like me out in this neck of the woods, just like the surfers who head out when a hurricane is coming in. I suppose idiots abound everywhere.

[xmas74]

31. The idiots in this college town

head to the bars when there are tornado warnings in adjoining counties so they have a place to drink while cheering on the storms.

[MadHound]

33. Would that college town be Columbia?

Because if is Springfield, all the journalists head to the nearest church

[xmas74]

48. Nope,

Warrensburg.

We have Pine Street, which is basically a few blocks of nothing but bars, all within walking distance of the train station and UCM. (What used to be CMSU.) The college offers a shuttle to Pine Street for free.

I remember all the kids demanding plastic cups so they could stand outside and cheer the storms on while getting wasted.

[MadHound]

56. I've been down Pine Street before,

I grew up in Columbia, and it's much the same. The prime apartment complex for journalism students is on 9th Street across from the J-school(the J-school slums). Of course, it's located right next to one bar, one block from at least three more.

I think a lot of people in Missouri are crazy about big storms. Every place I've been in this state, you always have that certain crazy crowd standing outside, drinking in the storm's power. I should know, I'm out there with them.

[xmas74]

58. I've stood outside and watched.

They just kind of suck you in and you can't stop staring.

You need to make it back up this direction sometime. They're renovating Pine Street (but the bars will always be there) and the campus is under a huge renovation. They just built a new student wellness center and it's pretty nice, the entire campus is under a beautification program, and there are plans for a new dorm, total renovation of the Admin building into a fine arts center and even plans for renovating the football stadium. The campus is getting bigger and bigger, which it needs to since enrollment is rapidly growing.

[Chorophyll]

35. The whole east coast doesn't have it easy, that's for sure.

But where I am in the Hudson Valley, we generally do have four distinct seasons, and even our snowfall is manageable. The western side of New York state gets the harsh winters.

I would love to see a Fox News team out there in Missouri on a storm chase. If Fox is too chicken, CNN would be fine too.

[xmas74]

50. Fox is far too chicken.

Actually, most of them would be too chicken to chase. Most of the chases are diehard weather enthusiasts, professionals, or good old country boys and girls who think it sounds like fun.

I've known a couple of good old boys with beat up pick up trucks outfitted with plexiglass trying to run down a storm.

[Sherman A1]

62. We have a winner!

The 24/7 need to fill the air time between commercials is precisely what is wrong with this country.

[xmas74]

29. This is the first time I've ever heard that name

and I took the storm spotter training classes!

We were informed in class if the sky looked like that to take cover and call it in.

[MuseRider]

52. LOL

Big ass storm, same here. In a normal year anyone not used to that kind of this would have a nervous breakdown. Just one more reason people tell us to move away. I like em, makes living out here interesting.

Derecho huh?

[meaculpa2011]

23. Same here.

We're about 5 miles east and the storm lasted about 20 minutes. The lightning show over the ocean was breathtaking.

[Historic NY]

40. I'm 60 miles north very high winds black than night intermittent power outages...

we have had some trees and wires down not quite a mega-disaster. It rolled across from the west I live back to the Hudson River and the winds were buffeting. Heavy rain and then it was gone heading toward Conn. I had a friend making the Newburgh Beacon bridge crossing and he said it was a fright with the wind and the traffic along with the lightning

[Chorophyll]

57. You guys must have got the brunt of it.

We only had typical summer storm conditions here. But when it's bad, it's bad. I got caught in a storm in Rockland County back in June, and it was blinding. People were pulling off the roads to wait it out. Water was just pouring over the roadway.

I didn't mean to suggest we don't get bad weather here; was just taking note of the laser-like focus of the news media.

[bluedigger]

22. You think it might have something to do with population density?

[MadHound]

25. Let's see, two people killed, perhaps a few dozen injured

A hundred thousand or so without power. On the East Coast it makes news for days.

When St. Louis is hammered by a storm with far more damage, more people killed, injured and without power, there is hardly a peep on the national news.

The difference is in the east coast bias, mainly because the media is all on the east coast.

[MadHound]

41. You're not going to get one to one payback, ever

Because the simple fact of the matter is population density.

Oh, and you do benefit from the tax dollars that are spent out here, cheap food, energy, etc.

That's why these sort of divisive tax arguments are foolish, they look at too small a focus, one state, as opposed to how those tax dollars benefit all of us as a nation.

[snooper2]

42. So if you got more than that sixty cents you are saying Jersey wouldn't smell as bad?

Ba ba Boom LOL

[snooper2]

71. not really a smell but lots of traces of cocaine

LOL

Thanks anyway!!!!

[snooper2]

75. What industry are you in? Could you make it a rental and move to Texas?

apparently Dallas made it #4 on coolest city to live in. How in the fuck Houston, which you may miss from the highway because it looks like a low lying cloud, made #1 I'll never know


Based on economy, jobs, number of young adults, entertainment and a couple other things-

I should probably make this an OP

Houston is known for many things: Oil, NASA, urban sprawl and business-friendly policies. But the Texas city deserves to be known for something else: coolness.

The Bayou City may not be the first place you associate with being hip or trendy. But Houston has something many other major cities don’t: jobs. With the local economy humming through the recession, Houston enjoyed 2.6% job growth last year and nearly 50,000 Americans flocked there in response — particularly young professionals. In fact, the median age of a Houston resident is a youthful 33.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/morganbrennan/2012/07/26/houston-tops-our-list-of-americas-coolest-cities-to-live/

[xmas74]

26. We must be sharing a brain today.

I thought the same thing.

[xtraxritical]

43. I live in S. Calif. and if there's even the slightest possibility of rain it's big news and reported

endlessly. We're so spoiled.

[MadHound]

51. You and Texas,

I go down to Austin regularly to visit friends, and it is amazing how much people freak when there is just a rain storm. Even more funny is how the town shuts down. . .for an inch of snow. Schools close and everything.

Long ago I had a girlfriend from San Diego, and her first winter in Missouri sent her into a six month state of shock. A couple of inches of snow were a revelation to her, a foot was a miracle. Taught her how to sled, ice skate and other snow fun.

Funny thing is, here in Missouri the winters were always winter, with at least a couple of big snowstorms, sleet, etc. That was back in the sixties and seventies. But as time and climate change have marched on, the winters have become less severe. Sure, we got a good winter couple of years ago, but that was first "old normal" winter I'd seen in at least seven years. Last winter was more like a late fall, a couple of inches of snow all winter, not that cold at all. And this summer is just brutal. No snow, no subsurface moisture, major heat and drought.

[hatrack]

78. I'm 51, and have never ever, EVER seen a summer as bad as this

Spent most of my life in or around Kansas City, and this is simply the Worst. Summer. Ever. Even 1980 can't hold a candle to it.

We got a break on Wednesday night, plus a whopping 1/10th inch of rain, and a break in the heat - all the way down to the low 90s. Back to New Normal tomorrow - 102, with expected highs of 106 on Sunday.

Fire up the blast furnace.

Could be worse, though. Saint Louis just tied the record (standing since 1934), with fifteen days this summer above 100, and ten above 105.

[hedgehog]

70. Well, put the East Coast in the same category as Atlanta getting 2" of snow.

It's the odd stuff that makes the news, mostly because people and structures are unprepared.

[HappyMe]

11. Beautiful and scary.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. Mother nature sometimes reminds us who's really in charge rather dramatically.

[malaise]

16. Wow!

Thanks

[Chorophyll]

19. Amazing photos. The last one is gorgeous. nt

[aquart]

28. Please. Don't belittle these storms. We DON'T want people out in them.

You have these storms every day in Texas? Much likely to fall on you from an elderly 30-story building? A forty-foot tree likely to land on your car?

We are heavily populated, heavily built, and intensely forested. Yeah. TREES. Where we don't have buildings we have tall, old TREES.

So you go and snigger. But I'm thinking you don't have to duck.

[Hestia]

45. Do you think there aren't trees in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas or Missouri? Really? Old & big trees?

I want to ask a serious question about the thunderstorms up there. If they don't normally look like the attached clouds, what do the clouds look like? I used to live in Cleveland and there would be rain clouds, but I really don't remember any thunderstorms. Don't let everyone fool you though, when the clouds look black, everyone generally heads inside; not everyone here is a storm chaser.

[aquart]

61. Not with 8 million people around them, no.

We aren't used to tornadoes, either, not even little bitty ones but we've begun to get them.

The weather has become more deadly for all of us and it would be helpful if we admitted it.

[barbtries]

30. those pictures are breathtaking.

what kind of camera gets pictures like that? especially the bottom one. thank you for sharing!

[AngryOldDem]

38. We were outside when it came through northwest Ohio...

...doing some genealogical work in a church cemetery. The sky to the northwest got extremely dark. I thought we would have enough time to wrap up taking pictures, get back in the car, and go. But then the wind picked up so hard that we could see dust moving across open fields like a haboob. My kid ran back to the car, I followed, and as I did the roof of a building across the road peeled off like a tin can. I got in the car, and as I closed the door a big metal trash can came barrelling out of nowhere and hit the side. The car was rocking. I thought we were in the middle of a tornado.

Driving home we saw a lot of property damage, including a dairy barn that had calves escaping through some missing panels. One was in the road. We stopped to let the farmer know, and he said there was nothing he could do until the storm passed.

It was one of scariest moments of my life, and it boggles my mind that what we went through was even worse in the East, although the storm passed over the Appalachians...just wow.

[Rhiannon12866]

49. K&R! Incredible photos!

We were fortunate here in NE NY, just had a teeming downpour. I got soaked.

[drm604]

54. Last evening in the Philly suburbs we had clouds that looked like that.

I went into a CVS to pick up a prescription. It was still daylight and the light was about normal for that time of the evening.

When I came out just a few minutes later, it had gotten much darker and there were weird clouds just like the ones in the pictures in the OP. This was followed by a brief downpour.

I don't think I'd ever seen clouds like these before, except maybe in pictures.

[Tess49]

60. Looks just like a stormy spring day in Oklahoma. n/t

[mmonk]

63. My son is in Horseheads New York(which is near Elmira).

Elmira got hit by a tornado and there was a curfew. He called to say he was ok. Being in Raleigh, there was nothing I could do. Come to think of it, I'm tired of the nearly nightly storms here as well.

[LonePirate]

65. That looks like a typical summer thunderstorm here in Kansas

[LiberalEsto]

66. God is coming

And is She ever pissed!

[Rex]

72. Wow! The first photo looks like another planet is

about to crash into ours! Amazing photos!

[cbrer]

74. It's not nice to F**K with Mother Nature

As global climate change evolves, we can look forward to more aberrant events.

If you live near the coast, batten down the hatches!

If you live inland, better drill a well!

[Odin2005]

76. Incredible!

[harun]

80. The Carpathian Returns