Did you know what a Derecho is? check it out! diluvio....

[p6x]

Have you heard about what a Derecho is? this is a good example of what the deluge maybe.

This happened unexpectedly in Houston on Thursday 16th of May 2024. I have been without power since. The storm was incredibly strong, I had never seen something as powerful as that before. My street was littered by fallen trees, fallen power lines. Being out on a motorcycle would have been terrifying.

I had the warning to shelter at about the same time the Derecho hit, about 18:15. I lost power at 18:30. The storm subsided at 18:45, just about.

According to those that predict the weather, a Derecho is unpredictable, since if forms spontaneously if and when the conditions are met. I am still off post, and our electricity company says power should be restored by Wednesday or before. I am currently at someone else's house, waiting to go back.

The video below gives you a good idea of what happened. Notice at one point we see a motorcyclist. I would love to know how he did in that kind of fury.

 

[docc]

Derecho are wicked straight-line wind, storm front events, not uncommonly 70-90 mph!

I hope all of us are using quality radar apps on our mobile devices and know what the derecho radar signature looks like. Do not ride in these!

[Lucky Phil]

Judging by the trees on the side of the road it didn't look that bad to me. I've been caught if far worse here and I've also had a house destroyed by a freak storm back in 1990. In that event it was accompanied by golf ball sized hail. I was actually in the garage at the time it hit and was so concerned by the movement of the garage roller door I went and spread my arms and hands out and pressed on it from the inside to try and support it. As I did this the hail hit and I stood there watching 1/4 in deep dents form on the door as the hail hit it from outside. A scary surreal 30 seconds and it was over. Opened the garage door to the wife screaming inside the house taking shelter under the dining table with our baby and the front of the house destroyed along with the cars and every tree on the property and every fence down. 

Like a Tornado alley event in the mid west I guess. You couldn't get a Glazier in our area for months.

Phil

[activpop]

Any storm that takes human life is "that bad". The frequency that it happens here is on the uptick. 

[p6x]

Finally back home, after 5 days and 1/2 of power outage.

This was an experience. Houston opened "cooling centers" for those without AC because the temperatures are close to 90 degF with the heat index around the 100 degF...

It's impossible to not have AC in these conditions.

[docc]

I did not realize you were displaced from your home because of this storm, @p6x.

So glad to hear you are back home, now!

High heat index is dangerous, especially for those with heart conditions. And old-ish-ness types . . . like most of us?

[p6x]

@docc

This was an incredibly educational experience. There were a lot of positive learning from what happened.

Primo: there were no more traffic lights. We all have experienced the occasional outage, but it is completely different when none of the traffic lights are working. To add to the challenge, it is not localized to a small area, but it is wide all around miles away.

This is when you realize that many drivers do not understand what to do, or even if they do, they are anxious to do it. Complicating the task, the left and right turns from perpendicular intersections. Even more challenging, when driving in non-familiar neighborhoods, you do not know where the traffic lights are, so you have to pay attention and look out for them. Now, this is easy during the day. Picture it at night, when there are no lights....

Secondo: the amount of debris scattered on the roads, fallen trees, fallen medium voltage lines, twigs of any size and kind, signs... I always wondered why nobody seemed to maintain some of the trees which are not placed inside private properties. Some of these trees have diseases, and this became obvious during the storm. I saw trees uprooted, others broken at mid-trunk. It seemed to me, some of the damage could have been avoided if those trees had been removed. Not all the damage, but since I live here, I have never seen anything being done to those branches that protrude into the streets. They usually get removed by trucks, or they sometimes fall.

Terzio: absolutely impossible to get an update on when power will be restored in your area. I realize priority goes to hospitals, government institutions, thereafter where it will benefit the most customers from the least possible effort. But it is difficult to accept that passed the day after, nobody can give you any clue on a date, other than power will be restored as fast as possible. Around my house, there are families with small children, many did not know what to do in the absence of clear indications. Sure, the city was quick to setup so-called "cooling centers" but those were only opened from 7:00 to 19:00. Where do you sleep kids in that kind of heat? last but not least: food! with your fridges and deep freezes out, cheap food maybe out of reach. As incredible as it seems in our times, we had families who struggled to feed themselves. Fortunately, some supermarket chains offered food to those who needed it.

Quarto: No power = no network = lost in the world! since hertzien waves have been replaced by WiFi, being unable to keep in touch is incredibly frustrating. You can no longer communicate. My cell phone provider had no network, because all the repeaters were down too. No call, no text, nothing.... back in the days, you could switch on your radio, turn to local radio stations and get some updates. When the storm hit at about 18:15 that Thursday, we lost power at 18:30. Shortly after, we lost all means of communication too. I don't even know if 911 was accessible. That too was a new. We grew accustomed to get everything from Internet, without it, it seems impossible to go on.

yes, it was really an eyes opening experience!

 

[p6x]

Another day and another thunderstorm with damaging winds and possible floods in Houston!

Seems like my Radar App is sending me warnings throughout the day, every day. I wish those would be over sooner than later. No matter how impervious you are, you can't ride in storms like this.

[p6x]

On 5/19/2024 at 11:54 AM, docc said:

Do not ride in these!

From what I understood, and I am not a meteorologist, the major issue with Derechos, is they are impossible to predict ahead of time. Hence, when it hit us, the warning came basically at the time the Derecho formed.

I received the warning on my phone at 18:15, all hell came loose at 18:25! I was home, and it was like suddenly the lights were switched off outside. Some of the residents that were on I-10 said they were like sitting ducks, they could do nothing. This was my first encounter of such a weather event, and I must admit that in a wooden house, I did not feel that comfortable.

[Pressureangle]

I've been in a lot of storms, from Hurricane Wilma's eye to a Minnesota tornado to sailing in 80 knot winds and rain in the Atlantic.

Worst I've ever seen was I-10 West of Dallas in 1980. It went from 'jeez look at that cloud' to my buddy driving with his head out the window, drowning, just to be able to see the line in the road so he could find the shoulder in about 3 minutes. Literally could not see the Oldsmobile hood ornament. I've never before or since seen that much water come from the sky. I don't think anyone can really understand it until they've stood under it.

[PJPR01]

1 hour ago, p6x said:

From what I understood, and I am not a meteorologist, the major issue with Derechos, is they are impossible to predict ahead of time. Hence, when it hit us, the warning came basically at the time the Derecho formed.

I received the warning on my phone at 18:15, all hell came loose at 18:25! I was home, and it was like suddenly the lights were switched off outside. Some of the residents that were on I-10 said they were like sitting ducks, they could do nothing. This was my first encounter of such a weather event, and I must admit that in a wooden house, I did not feel that comfortable.

I had a lot of damage at my house, just about a mile from you P6X with that Derecho...going thru repairs now.

By the way, if you're out riding for the Grand Tour and headed to Marfa...take a look at this news report from this morning!!

https://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-town-deploys-snow-plows-after-50-degree/story?id=110671830

[p6x]

@PJPR01

I am sorry to hear your house was damaged! I lost the contents of two freezers full of brisket and other kind of Angus meat. In today's prices, this represented a significant write-off. I remained without power almost a full six days; I tried to stay without AC, because of the humidity, it makes it impossible to sleep when temperatures are above 80F.

The saddest realization is that the crews came, cleanup the fallen trees over the medium voltage lines, but did not touch the other damaged trees. Next high windstorm and the power will get knocked off again. I am getting confused why those exposed lines don't get buried underground, to get rid of the problem once for good...

A few trees fell on houses, but those were inside private properties.

Some of my neighbors have generators, but they make too much noise for my taste. In any case, they are not powerful enough to power the AC; at least, they have lights and fans.

 

[Gmc28]

On 5/31/2024 at 7:41 AM, Pressureangle said:

I've been in a lot of storms, from Hurricane Wilma's eye to a Minnesota tornado to sailing in 80 knot winds and rain in the Atlantic.

Worst I've ever seen was I-10 West of Dallas in 1980. It went from 'jeez look at that cloud' to my buddy driving with his head out the window, drowning, just to be able to see the line in the road so he could find the shoulder in about 3 minutes. Literally could not see the Oldsmobile hood ornament. I've never before or since seen that much water come from the sky. I don't think anyone can really understand it until they've stood under it.

Sorry to hear about all the carnage down there… hope things work out ok.  

I’ve not had that experience of the “derecho”, but like pressureangle i had a north Texas “long and lonesome highway” experience with a storm that left a mental mark on my memory.  The blue sky had the one batch of black clouds, with the highway turning toward then away from it all.  Pulled over and put on the rain jacket just in case, despite it being mostly hot and blue sky.  Sure enough, shockingly fast it went from “I think we’ll miss that black sky” to then some rain drops, then all hell breaking loose with big winds and massive hail.  Didn’t like the idea of pulling over because there wasn’t much of a shoulder, and people wouldn’t see you if they were meandering/swerving in the lack of visibility.  Hail was smashing against my helmet and within moments the pavement grooves were deep in hail ice mixed with rain water, with only the middle part of the lane between the tire grooves being somewhat visible above the level of the hail-ice.     The cars were putting up huge “bow waves” of watery ice as they sloshed along.  “This ain’t good”, screams the lower brain stem.  Slowing down was the instinctive answer, but since i knew most motorists couldn’t see me on the bike, i instead accelerated and got ahead of the 4 wheel vehicles that had clustered together, me in the middle by chance.  With luck i shot the gaps to get ahead and it was just me trying to stay upright, rather than leaving my fate to being splattered by a motorist who couldn’t see me.  Maybe 30 seconds later it was back to blue sky.  Another couple minutes later my drenched pants were dry.  

But you guys chose to live in Texas!  At least luckyphil has the Great Barrier Reef, excellent wine country, beautiful coastlines, and decent espresso to show for living in place where his fellow Aussies would tell me “everything will kill you here” when we first got our orientation there at the airfields. 

[PJPR01]

Having grown up in California and lived there for half my life, and felt several big earthquakes including the 1989 Loma Prieta one (living in Palo Alto then), I do prefer the "advance warning" of a hurricane vs. the suddenness of an earthquake.  Now having been thru quite a few hurricanes (Rita, Ike, Harvey and some major tropical storms here as well)  it's certainly preferable to an earthquake.  Houston normally just doesn't have tornados, having to get above Dallas and into Oklahoma/Kansas areas to have that as a regular risk.  Who knows anymore with the warming, this could be a treacherous year of hurricanes too given the rising gulf ocean waters.  

I've seen the last few days of amazingly large hail in towns a few hours north (tennis ball sized) that looks like it could just pulverize you on the motorcycle...smashing windshields on cars very easily.  

Summer may be too hot to ride again for a month or so as it was last summer...regularly hitting 115F heat index values for almost 30 days straight...

On the plus side, the insurance company has been exceptionally fast in authorizing the repayment of expenses, after shelling out the deductible...so that's good...no fighting with them at least.

[audiomick]

On 6/1/2024 at 7:26 PM, Gmc28 said:

... the Great Barrier Reef,

High on the endangered list, unfortunately.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Barrier_Reef#Environmental_threats