Derecho in North Texas

Stratosphere747 · #21 Postby **Stratosphere747** » Wed May 02, 2007 9:27 pm

EWG,

Crazy never said anything about sustained winds. Only about reported winds, ie; gusts.

We all know that there would never be "sustained" winds in a severe event.

Janie2006 · #22 Postby **Janie2006** » Wed May 02, 2007 9:48 pm

In a situation like this, you can get very strong downdrafts and microbursts. Microbursts of that strength can down jet airliners quite easily....none should be anywhere near that system, though.

Extremeweatherguy · #23 Postby **Extremeweatherguy** » Wed May 02, 2007 10:12 pm

Stratosphere747 wrote:EWG,

Crazy never said anything about sustained winds. Only about reported winds, ie; gusts.

We all know that there would never be "sustained" winds in a severe event.

What do you mean there wouldn't be "sustained" winds in a severe event? Yes there would. In this event, the sustained winds likely reached strong TS or Cat. 1 force in the hardest hit areas (same places that saw 90mph+ gusts). All my original statement was meant to say though was that these areas would not have had "the look and feel of a Category 2-3 hurricane" as Crazy suggested. To have the "look and feel" of the a major hurricane, the winds would have needed to be sustained at that level.

Stratosphere747 · #24 Postby **Stratosphere747** » Wed May 02, 2007 10:29 pm

Extremeweatherguy wrote:
Stratosphere747 wrote:EWG,

Crazy never said anything about sustained winds. Only about reported winds, ie; gusts.

We all know that there would never be "sustained" winds in a severe event.
What do you mean there wouldn't be "sustained" winds in a severe event? Yes there would. In this event, the sustained winds likely reached strong TS or Cat. 1 force in the hardest hit areas (same places that saw 90mph+ gusts). All my original statement was meant to say though was that these areas would not have had "the look and feel of a Category 2-3 hurricane" as Crazy suggested. To have the "look and feel" of the a major hurricane, the winds would have needed to be sustained at that level.

LOL...

You actually tried to disagree, then agreed. I forget how analytical you try to be. No more delving into this - feel free to PM me...

Scott

Category 5 · #25 Postby **Category 5** » Wed May 02, 2007 10:35 pm

sustained or not, it can still take your roof off.

Dr. Jonah Rainwater · #26 Postby **Dr. Jonah Rainwater** » Thu May 03, 2007 1:11 am

I was at work when the storm hit suddenly- patio chairs went flying, the door opened itself and the tree limbs were bouncing around like crazy! Bolts of lightning directly overhead, rain flying sideways in sheets and clouds, landscaping overflowing with water....it was definitely intense to put it lightly.

Plano (wherever the WFAA reporting station in Plano is anyway) reported an 84mph gust! :eek:

Category 5 · #27 Postby **Category 5** » Thu May 03, 2007 3:20 am

Saw video on ESPN of debris flying around the ballpark in Arlington.

Category 5 · #28 Postby **Category 5** » Thu May 03, 2007 3:26 am

According to SPC, at least one reported injured.

TexasStooge · #29 Postby **TexasStooge** » Thu May 03, 2007 7:07 am

My vicinity only sustained 60-70 MPH winds.

#30 Postby **CrazyC83** » Thu May 03, 2007 9:24 am

At least AFAIK no fatalities.

Extremeweatherguy · #31 Postby **Extremeweatherguy** » Fri May 04, 2007 6:40 am

Here is a crazy video of the derecho. This video looks to show hurricane force wind gusts or above...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ20vszKZbA[/youtube]

And here is another amazing video..

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ydxVdUCWgg[/youtube]

TampaSteve · #32 Postby **TampaSteve** » Mon May 07, 2007 11:54 pm

Extremeweatherguy wrote:crazy video from one of the hardest hit areas of the derecho. This video looks to show hurricane force sustained winds and gusts probably to the 100mph range...

Not bad...but here's some REAL hurricane force winds for ya...I was here for this storm...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 5345019180

8-)

ETXHAMXYL · #33 Postby **ETXHAMXYL** » Tue May 08, 2007 3:34 pm

What is a derecho? Just wondering? I have not heard this term before. Thanks

TampaSteve · #34 Postby **TampaSteve** » Tue May 08, 2007 6:18 pm

ETXHAMXYL wrote:What is a derecho? Just wondering? I have not heard this term before. Thanks

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

Basically like a squall line, but associated with a warm air mass instead of a cold front.

#35 Postby **simplykristi** » Tue May 08, 2007 7:11 pm

They can travel hundreds of miles too.

#36 Postby **Aslkahuna** » Tue May 08, 2007 7:40 pm

They also have different set of dynamics than ordinary squall lines. In the videos-hurricane force gusts quite probably-sustained hurrican force winds with gusts to 100 mph no way. No tree damage whereas 65G85kt wind would have taken down a lot of trees and blown in windows.

Steve

Extremeweatherguy · #37 Postby **Extremeweatherguy** » Tue May 08, 2007 8:31 pm

Aslkahuna wrote:They also have different set of dynamics than ordinary squall lines. In the videos-hurricane force gusts quite probably-sustained hurrican force winds with gusts to 100 mph no way. No tree damage whereas 65G85kt wind would have taken down a lot of trees and blown in windows.

Steve

Just so you know, I was not making up those numbers. Many areas did report wind gusts up to 75-90+mph as the derecho rolled through north Texas. Also, that derecho did do damage. North texas news websites showcased pictures of flipped and blown trampolines, downed signs, snapped trees and limbs, and ripped roofing material for days following these storms.

BTW: The winds in those two videos look worse than what I saw with Hurricane Frances and Jeanne in Orlando, FL (where gusts to 69mph were recorded with Frances and 78mph with Jeanne), so I would assume based on that that the videos both show at least 80mph wind gusts, if not higher.

Here is another video of that derecho that features some damage photos at the end (this area looks to have recieved weaker winds than the first two videos also, meaning that the other areas probably saw even more damage):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idrjrhAfUds[/youtube]

#38 Postby **vbhoutex** » Tue May 08, 2007 9:06 pm

I have to agree with Steve on his assessment of the two video's. I have been through several Hurricanes and numerous TS's in my life and neither of those videos, IMO, showed gusts anywhere near 100 mph. We saw much worse damage to very similar trees in our yard in Gulf Breeze, FL during Camille. Winds during Camille, depending on who you listen to/believe never got above 85 mph in the P'cola area. Our trees were bigger than those and were bent to the ground and the leaves shredded off of them.

I have no doubt that the wind reports out of the Dallas area are genuine, but I do not think those two particular videos showed anything near 100 mph. Winds are very capricious and are not the same everywhere. They come in streaks as we all well know from our following Hurricanes as we all do.

Extremeweatherguy · #39 Postby **Extremeweatherguy** » Tue May 08, 2007 10:23 pm

After re-viewing the two videos, I have decided to lower the wind speeds on my original post. However, I do still think they both show wind gusts to at least hurricane strength, if not a little higher (but probably not to 100mph as first stated).

One thing to consider when viewing the videos is that in a hurricane the winds last for hours, but in the derecho they lasted less than 30 minutes. The longer duration would likely account for additional damages not seen in the derecho-affected areas.

Derecho in North Texas

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