Derecho Wreaks Havoc In Midwest; This One Was Even Worse Than Usual

As you might have seen on the news, a huge derecho swept across the Midwest Monday, creating a wide trail of damage extending over almost 800 miles. 

Derecho damage in Des Moines, Iowa. 

A derecho is defined as a long lasting, particularly destructive line of thunderstorms that can cover 1,000 miles in just a day.  

Since they cover such a huge area of real estate, they often cause more damage than big tornadoes.  Luckily, derechos only happen a couple times a year in the United States. 

Monday's derecho was especially powerful and destructive. It started before dawn in southeastern South Dakota and rapidly strengthened as it roared across Iowa. It maintained its destructive force through Illinois and Indiana before finally weakening toward the end of the day in Ohio.

Derechos often have a few embedded tornadoes within them and Monday's probably did, too. But the real power of a derecho is the wide areas of damaging winds, with pockets of super strong straight line winds. I saw one commentator say it was basically like a Category 2 strength hurricane making  "landfall" in Iowa. 

Monday's storms had some incredible wind reports. The town of Midway, Iowa was battered by a gust of 112 mph (!!).  It wasn't just rural, relatively unpopulated areas that got nailed. Davenport, Iowa reported a gust to 86 mph.  Moline, Illinois reported 79 mph.

Winds in some neighborhoods in Chicago surely topped 70 mph, and a tornado went through one neighborhood in the city's north side. 

The saddest outcome of this derecho was in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the winds rolled a mobile home.  Rescuers found a woman holding a child beneath her under the debris. She protected the child, who had minor injuries, but the woman died. 

More than a million people lost electricity.   

Midwest derecho damage in the Midwest Monday.

Another consequence of the derecho is the flattened corn fields across much of Iowa.  Huge fields of corn were blown down, probably causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.  Commodity prices might go up because of this 

Because of the widespread damage, I would not at all be surprised if total damages exceed $1 billion. There might actually be more damage than from last week's Hurricane Isaias on the East Coast.

The weather front that helped trigger the derecho is now approaching us here in Vermont. But to emphasis, NOTHING like what happened in the Midwest will occur here. 

It is hot today, with heat advisories in many of the valleys in and around Vermont. A few scattered storms might get going later today, and a few might be strong or even severe. But any severe weather will be limited to just a very few isolated spots. Certainly nothing widespread like yesterday in the Midwest. 

Videos: 

Click on the YouTube logos on each to get a better view.

The derecho blasts by one Iowa office building in this video:

Meteorologist Nick Stewart took this view of the derecho amid Iowa's corn fields.

Andrew Pritchard filmed these scenes in northern Illinois: