Illinois Hurricane radar loop, 8 May 2009

[bwlfp]

@lionsforlyons I did not contradict myself at all, try re-reading my sentence. Tropical cyclones do not have to form in the tropics. I am not saying this is a tropical cyclone, however it may exhibit similar features to a forming tropical cyclone.

[bwlfp]

@lionsforlyons Tropical cyclones don't have to form in the tropics it's just that they usually do.

[bwlfp]

@lionsforlyons tropical cyclones form from mesoscale convective vortices.

[JustinUstynik]

This is a Low Pressure area not a Hurricane or any assoicated tropical event. A tropical event originates over the warm waters, this event did not. However it does not matter. The winds, if correct at over 100 mph, are equal to a catagory 2 hurricane even though the winds last for only a few minutes - and that 100 mph is in very short gusts.

Hurricanes have short gusts as well that are much stronger than the sustained winds.

[stormdude3603]

In Texas, we see these radar echoes quite frequently. A large thunderstorm complex will develop, and behind it, a low pressure area will trail often giving the impression of a tropical-like storm. To the lehman, this was an "inland hurricane". To weather afficionados, meteorologists, and newspeople, this was a strong MCS with an intense derecho.

[stormdude3603]

We all agree that to be classified as a tropical systems, that those conditions must be met, along with the strongest sustained winds near the center of the storm, not far away from it. There were never sustained winds of 39 mph or greater with this storm, let alone 74 mph. Embedded within the derecho, there were very strong wind gusts caused by microbursts and downdrafts. This is no tropical system. Merely a strong area of low pressure that peaked during a period of intense convection.

[bwlfp]

@stormdude3603 I think you may have defined a tropical system

[stormdude3603]

Very impressive storm to be sure. Very large derecho. This, however, was NOT A HURRICANE. It was a very well developed mesocale convective system with a large derecho/bow echo. There is a very convenient void in convection where the "eye" is. The motion around this void is barely moving counterclockwise, not the violent spiral that a hurricane is. We all agree that tropical systems are borne in the water and not over land. We all agree that tropical systems are purely warm-cored. 

[bwlfp]

@stormdude3603 not sure in fact some of the elements of genesis are being discovered through land systems. Perhaps the fundamental elements of a hurricane can occur over land but are unlikely to be maintained? Recent research suggests that the fundamentals lie in the convection not the ocean.

[wac4zac35]

This day sucked! i was at school in benton illinois. sometime around 11 o clock we got into the tornado position in the hallways and bathrooms and stayed like that all day. i was terrified. it was the worst day ever. Then when we got home we didnt have any power for three days. but we were lucky cuz in marion n carbondale they didnt get power for like a week!

[kma618]

The only reason they called this a Derecho is because no body in Illinois has hurricane insurance. If this was classified as a hurricane then the weather service mandates that it be named. If it was named, no one could have received insurance money to help with the damages. yes. This WAS a hurricane, but, they only called it that to keep people from getting screwed out of their money.

[dotlee12]

Hey don't feel bad! A limb fell on my car when I was trying move people out of mobile homes. Damn tree totalled my mustang!!

[bowser313]

rofl i slept through all this

[TriaMaxwell]

@bowser313 Wouldn't be hard to if you were asleep when it happened. It didn't last long. And the lack of power gave us a nice quiet few days. Only bad thing was the lack of hot water for bathing, and during the power outage they declared a boil water order. LOL

[chadclayaaron]

Oh, and just for the record...what was this hurricane's name? ha.

[chadclayaaron]

a hurricane is (a severe *tropical* cyclone usually with heavy rains and winds moving a 73-136 knots (12 on the Beaufort scale)) this was related to a low pressure MCS these were all straight line winds. The pattern in the trees you seen may have been an embedded microburst. bottom line: hurricanes form over water. This was classified by the National Weather Service office and trained damage survey teams as a derecho.

[maizeman90]

@chadclayaaron

We all know this but at first most were calling it a Hurricane so that is what this person who posted this video called it. Not everyone is a hurricane expert. Plus it is easier to remember than derecho lol

[klgriff619]

This storm had an eye. Derechos don't. That was just like hurricane Aaron in Florida around 1998. The radar looked like a hurricane, the wind speeds looked like a hurricane, etc...

[chadclayaaron]

this was A derecho (from Spanish: "derecho" meaning "straight") is a widespread and long-lived, violent convectively induced straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms in the form of a squall line usually taking the form of a bow echo It was named this almost immediately after the passage of it.

[klgriff619]

The radar looked like a hirricane. The barometer acted like a hurricane. There were leeves plastered on all sides of my house and there was no tornado. Another sign it was a hurricane. The trees broke blowing in almost evry direction. That's a strong indicator that it wasn't a derecho or any other type of straightline winds.

[kailynleto]

@klgriff619 Hurricanes MUST form over open ocean and have a warm core. This type of storm might have had a warm core, but it didn't form over open ocean. That alone proves your thesis incorrect.

[lnorton89]

I was delivering pizza in the first wave, closed up shop and went to a friends and watched the second wave. Went home to two trailers instead of one with a tree in the middle.

[AtlantisSkye]

More proof that Mother Nature is a Bitch. I had left school at 12:00 the day this happened. I wasn't at work for four minutes before the power went out. My power was out for a good six days, because CIPS couldn't get around all the trees that came down. A tree took off a part of my kitchen. Luckily nobody was hurt, and insurance is paying for all of it.

[chongboy44]

I was in the center of this our tornado sirens were going off and they had to replace all of the roofs in evergreen (that's where i was).

[syhi1]

dude this shit is scarier than i freaking hurricane! b4 i moved to southern illinois i lived in south florida and with a normal hurricane you have time to pre-pare but wen it hit i was at skool and i was freaking out cause at gym i saw a funnal cloud and i thought a tornado hit or somethng and i was crying my fucking eyes out!!

[thesuperqwilfish1111]

ugh..i remeber being hit by this. i was woken up and was told that the skies looked funny so i got on my computer and find out we are under a Tornado Warning. We all huddled into the basement for about 48 minutes and got out. It didnt cause ANY damage to my town but it touched down around our house.

[xmyrtlex]

It was intense. I was on the northward edge of this storm, and we didn't get a ton of physical damage, but there was enough to knock the power out from Friday as the storm came in, to Tuesday night. The rest of the town had power, but apparently our block's equipment was damaged. I was so happy when the power came back on!

Thank you to everybody who helped in this cleanup. So. IL really appreciates the help!

[hurricaneleoj]

Hurricanes dont look like that.. more like a tropical storm in that video =D

[syhi1]

no dude... b4 i moved to southern illinois i lived in south florida and we have hurricanes all time.. thats a hurricane..

[allyroo85]

Also, they are calling it a derecho...

[bwlfp]

That's right. I've added a link to the video details that has a good discussion about this derecho's hurricane like characteristics.

[allyroo85]

This was an extremely intense storm, I was on the first floor of an apartment building because we didn't have a basement. Trees were snapping all around and people's rooftops were blown off! At one point I felt a strong pressure drop in my ears, after that I went and sat in the center most point of the building! Thanks for the radar post!

[sid124guy]

i was at school when it happened, and our teacher was stupid enogh to risk her life to go outside and get her chocolate cake(it was lunchtime though.)a teacher at the high school(johnston city)put my friend against the window,and the princaple started cussing the teacher out

[Atalla]

Oh, and thanks for posting this, I've been looking for the radar clip of the storm because we haven't had any electricity to see it on the news so I was curious to what it looked like.

[bwlfp]

Thanks for sharing your experience, that sounds intense, glad you are all OK.

[Atalla]

I remember I was at school when this happened. We couldn't even see across the parking lot. My back fence is half gone and the tree in our backyard almost landed in my bedroom but I'm so thankful it didn't. Everyone else is fine here too =)

[jmarkg932200]

no doubt that the hook or back end of this deracheo/MCC was rotateing much like a hurricane. You can see the eye and the rotation on the radar. The winds would switch just as a hurricane comeing in to the west coast of Florida moveing east. maybe there should be a new weather warning called a Deracheo/MCC complex warning? Mostly if theres an eye like a hurricane on the back end.

[OrbWeaver]

I was moving out the weekendd this happened. My parents, best friend and I were sitting in Mary Lou's diner when the power went out, and they sent us all to the basement. When we came back up, trees (BIG trees) were uprooted everywhere, and all kinds of power lines were down. Many people's cars got crushed by fallen trees, but no one was seriously injured, fortunately. I'm still going "WTF, Nature???"

[bwlfp]

Thats amazing! thanks a lot for sharing your story.

[EBunbury]

Fascinating, Captain!