The Superstorm Subtropical Derecho - March 12-13, 1993

On Friday March 12, 1993 a strong low pressure system developed in the Gulf of Mexico. This low pressure system continued to strengthen dramatically and moved northeastward into the mid Atlantic coastal region by Saturday evening, March 13th. Besides producing a record snowstorm in the eastern United States, this low pressure system produced an intense squall line with embedded bow echoes ahead of the system's cold front.

The squall line produced a serial derecho as it swept across the Florida peninsula, Cuba, and adjacent waters. The squall line reached the northern portion of the west coast of Florida and western Cuba between 11 PM and midnight EST on the evening of the 12th. After creating much damage and many casualties, the storm line passed off the shore of southeastern Florida about 5 AM EST on the morning of the 13th and pulled out of central Cuba after sunrise.

Much wind damage occurred across Florida with measured wind gusts reaching a maximum of 96 mph in the Tampa Bay area. Supercells embedded within the squall line produced tornadoes in the northern half of the Florida peninsula with some reaching F2 intensity.

As the derecho producing squall line raced through Florida, 7 people were killed and 79 were injured from the strong derecho winds and embedded tornadoes. The storm system winds blew down many trees, power poles, and power lines, tore roofs off homes, severely damaged mobile homes, and overturned large trucks.

As the derecho was passing through Florida it was also passing through Cuba. This event resulted in 10 deaths and many injuries in western and central Cuba. Economic losses in Cuba exceed one billion U.S. dollars.

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. Derechos blow in the direction of movement of their associated storms, similar to a gust front, except that the wind is sustained and generally increases in strength behind the "gust" front. A warm weather phenomenon, derechos occur mostly in summer, especially June and July in the Northern Hemisphere. They can occur at any time of the year and occur as frequently at night as in the daylight hours.

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[MrChamplin]

Does anybody know the name of this song?

[Legend813a]

Chinese Arithmetic by Eric B and Rakim from the album "Paid in Full" 1987

[swilli420]

all the ppl that said they we're born on this day are now officially called "Douche of the Centry" lol

[tubalador]

awesome though not for the tragedies...

[Ducknbob8]

@MrChamplin tokyo ting ching ting ting

[skateboy159]

i was born 1 year 1 day b4 this storm lol

[4u2candhear]

I won the fantasy five in florida on this day. 23 years old fist full of dollars. A premonition. Drove through that after picking up my check in my z.

[PositivelyBored]

@NTXForcaster

Yeah, a severe derecho is rare and can be extreme. The prolific lightning is what has always piqued my interest, anyway. Nevermind hundreds or even thousands (MCC) of miles of wind damage.

[F6SuperTornado08]

@plaetoe Yea i was there too and its was pretty much hurricane conditions,then when the line passed through, the temperature plummied and it went from raining to snowing, the coolest experience was the changover from rain to snow. everybody was like "wtf, snow in florida"!?!

[plaetoe]

I was in jacksonville when this storm hit.. We had hurricane force winds and when the line of storms passed through, in a matter of just an hour the temperature dropped 30 degrees. It went from 60 and rain to 28 and snow flurries. Almost the entire city lost power. Awesome storm. My parents north of Birmingham got 27 inches of snow from this storm.

[sponsler]

Awesome. I was In Cape Canaveral, FL on the East Coast ...much of this seems to be coming from the MLB (Melbourne, Fl) radar just to my south. Words cannot describe how AWESOME this event was here!

[NewEnglandWXLife]

woww really hi res radar for 1993 pretty incredible that folks had that stuff available

[Niyologist]

@AndrewSa888 Yes it did. As a matter in fact, the mountains of North Carolina got up to 60 inches of snow on that storm.

[sk8rboibreak]

@F6SuperTornado08 lol