June 2012 North American derecho

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June 2012 North American derecho
Late July 2012 North American derecho

The June 2012 Mid-Atlantic and Midwest derecho was one of the deadliest and most destructive fast-moving

mid-Atlantic states on the afternoon and evening of June 29, 2012, and into the early morning of June 30, 2012. It resulted in a total of 22 deaths, millions of power outages across the entire affected region, and a damage total of US$2.9 billion which exceeded that of all other derecho events aside from the August 2020 Midwest derecho (estimated US$11 billion). The storm prompted the issuance of four separate severe thunderstorm watches by the Storm Prediction Center
. A second storm in the late afternoon caused another watch to be issued across Iowa and Illinois.

Storm overview

Severe weather reports from the Storm Prediction Center on June 29, most of which were from the derecho

Initial stage

Warnings from the NWS on June 29–30. Red are tornado warnings, yellow are severe thunderstorm warnings, green are flash flood warnings, and purple are special marine warnings.

The storm started as a small

CDT (1650 UTC) just before the storm crossed over Chicago.[3]

Gaining of derecho characteristics

As the storm tracked eastward into Indiana, it became a

District of Columbia.[8] The derecho crossed the mountains of West Virginia, leaving destruction in its wake, as well as parts of southwestern Pennsylvania and eastern Kentucky through the early evening hours.[citation needed
]

After sunset

Despite the mountainous terrain and loss of daytime heating, the hot, humid air mass and high instability allowed the storms to maintain their high intensity, even though the amount of convective energy decreased slightly (to a still-extreme 3,500 J/kg).

Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area and southward towards Richmond. Widespread wind gusts over 70 mph (112 km/h), with some significantly higher, were reported across the large and heavily populated region.[7]

Overnight at sea and dissipation

Damaging winds continued eastward across the Chesapeake Bay towards the

Long Island, New York.[citation needed
]

Second complex develops

As the derecho moved through Ohio, a second storm developed in Iowa and tracked into northern Illinois. The earlier derecho had used up most of the convective energy in the atmosphere, so this second storm did not become another derecho. Nonetheless, a small MCS with a bow echo developed and became severe as it moved along this track. Its formation prompted the SPC to issue another severe thunderstorm watch, the second of the day for much of the region, for the areas in its path including parts of Iowa and Illinois.

Chicago area during the event.[citation needed
]

Impacts

Damage was widespread and extensive along the entire path of the derecho, especially in northern Indiana and the Fort Wayne metro area, central and western Ohio, northeastern Kentucky, southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, northern, central, and southwestern Virginia,

4th of July Holiday collapsed, and power outages were extensive, with over 4.2 million customers losing power as a result.[16]
Summer 2012 North American heat wave, conditions on following days were problematic, particularly for seniors and vulnerable people. Scattered structural damage also occurred along the path of the derecho, from both falling trees and the winds themselves. Some of the damage included siding was torn off houses, roofs removed from houses, businesses and apartment buildings, mobile homes heavily damaged, barns and garages destroyed and airplanes flipped.[7]


AEP Ohio power outages caused by the derecho
Damage in Columbus Grove, Ohio from the derecho

Ohio

Over 1 million customers lost power in Ohio, with power outages widespread across roughly two-thirds of the state. Saturday afternoon, Ohio

Accuweather compared its destruction to that of Hurricane Irene, and The Weather Channel compared it to hurricane damage in general.[25]
Many lost power for 5 days, some much longer.

West Virginia

In West Virginia, about 672,000 customers lost electricity.

West Virginia declared a state of emergency after the storm. All but two of the state's 55 counties sustained some damage or loss of power. At peak, more than half of the state's customers were without power. Around 70 high voltage power lines were downed.[27] The derecho's aftermath was arguably more difficult in West Virginia than anywhere else. Power restoration was very slow and outages extremely long, as a result of the sparse and scattered population, mountainous terrain, difficult conditions in extreme heat and need for crews over a large area; in many cases the outages lasted longer than two weeks. The American Red Cross shipped tens of thousands of meals to the state, along with large quantities of water to residents in entire communities that were isolated as a result.[28]
It also caused a gas outage in 5 counties.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

Across Pennsylvania, 32,500 customers lost power.[16] Storm debris delayed trains at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.[29]

Downed tree in Oakton, Virginia

Virginia

About 1 million customers lost power in Virginia, which was the largest outage in the state's history not related to a hurricane, and third largest outage including hurricanes, after Hurricane Isabel in 2003 and Hurricane Irene in 2011.[30] The outages also affected an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud datacenter in Northern Virginia, which caused Instagram, Pinterest, and Netflix to experience significant outages.[31] In Franklin County, Virginia, southeast of Roanoke, a volunteer firefighter was killed by a falling tree while responding to an emergency.[15] Two people in Big Island were killed in a storm-related house fire during the night of June 29[32] In the Roanoke Valley area, upwards of 65,000 residents in Roanoke, Lynchburg, and Danville lost power.[15] Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia declared a state of emergency after the storm.[33] 911 emergency service was disrupted for over two million customers in Virginia and West Virginia, with the greatest concentration of outages occurring in Northern Virginia and some customers experiencing 911 outages for several days. These outages were due to telephone switching equipment failing after a disruptive combination of power outages and power surges.[34]

Tree and power lines down in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., and Maryland

Approximately 68,000 customers were without power in

AT&T National golf tournament at Congressional Country Club was also slowed due to severe tree damage on the course.[20] Governor Martin O'Malley of Maryland declared a state of emergency after the storm. As of July 6, over 4800 tons of storm debris had been collected in Montgomery County, Maryland, with collection ongoing.[37]

In Baltimore (city) and Baltimore County, the widespread damage left large trees uprooted and traffic patterns disrupted. Throughout the Northern Baltimore (city) area neighborhoods experienced disrupted traffic patterns as large trees felled by the storm blocked secondary arterial roadways. Residential damage was heavy throughout the area from aging and weakened large growth trees uprooted during the storm crushing cars and damaging residential roofs. Power outages were widespread, with some neighborhoods north of Northern Parkway waiting up to ten days for full power restoration.


Downed tree in Ocean City, New Jersey

New Jersey

In

Atlantic City Electric reported that 206,000 customers lost power from downed trees. Most of the outages were in Atlantic County, which prompted a county-wide state of emergency. Near Atlantic City, a boater died while trying to bring his vessel ashore. Officials believed that lightning struck a 104-year-old church in Longport and caused a fire that damaged the building.[38] Two boys were killed when a tree fell on their tent in Parvin State Park.[39] In Vineland, damage was preliminarily estimated at $125 million.[40] On July 19, 2012, President Obama declared three counties in New Jersey (Atlantic, Cumberland, and Salem) federal disaster areas. This assured disaster relief through federal assistance to local and state governments and some non-profit organizations.[41]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Billion-Dollar Weather/Climate Disasters". National Climatic Data Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. June 2013. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  2. ^ "IEM Valid Time Extent Code (VTEC) App". Mesonet.agron.iastate.edu. Retrieved December 7, 2012.
  3. ^ Racy (June 29, 2012). "Severe Thunderstorm Watch 435". Storm Prediction Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved June 30, 2012.
  4. ^ Pydynowski, Kristina (June 30, 2012). "Deadly Super Derecho Strikes Midwest, Mid-Atlantic". AccuWeather. Retrieved June 30, 2012.
  5. ^ Thompson (June 29, 2012). "Severe Thunderstorm Watch 436". Storm Prediction Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
  6. ^ Jewell (June 29, 2012). "Jun 29, 2012 2000 UTC Day 1 Convective Outlook". Storm Prediction Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved June 30, 2012.
  7. ^ a b c d e "120629's Storm Reports (1200 UTC – 1159 UTC)". Storm Prediction Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. June 29, 2012. Retrieved June 30, 2012.
  8. ^ Hart (June 29, 2012). "Severe Thunderstorm Watch 438". Storm Prediction Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
  9. ^ Goss (June 29, 2012). "Mesoscale Discussion 1314". Storm Prediction Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved June 30, 2012.
  10. ^ a b Edwards (June 30, 2012). "Jun 30, 2012 0100 UTC Day 1 Convective Outlook". Storm Prediction Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved June 30, 2012.
  11. ^ Goss (June 29, 2012). "Severe Thunderstorm Watch 439". Storm Prediction Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
  12. ^ Goss (June 29, 2012). "Mesoscale Discussion 1316". Storm Prediction Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved June 30, 2012.
  13. ^ "IEM Local Storm Report App". Mesonet.agron.iastate.edu. Retrieved December 7, 2012.
  14. ^ Thompson (June 29, 2012). "Severe Thunderstorm Watch 437". Storm Prediction Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
  15. ^ a b c d e "Some in Roanoke could be without power until Saturday - wdbj7.com". WDBJ7.com. Roanoke, Virginia: WDBJ Television Inc. 30 June 2012. Archived from the original on 2 July 2012. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  16. ^ a b c Ian Simpson (2012-06-30). "Storms leave 3.4 million without power in eastern U.S." Chicago Tribune. Reuters. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  17. ^ "A Review of Power Outages and Restoration Following the June 2012 Derecho, Infrastructure Security and Energy Restoration, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, U.S. Department of Energy" U.S. Department of Energy. August 2012.
  18. ^ ""The Ohio Valley / Mid-Atlantic Derecho of June 2012"". The National Weather Service. The Storm Prediction Center. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  19. ^ "States declare emergency after storms leave over a dozen dead and millions without power". Fox News. 1 July 2012. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  20. ^
    NBC Universal. Archived from the original
    on January 3, 2013. Retrieved June 30, 2012.
  21. ^ Bassu, Moni (June 30, 2012). "3 states declare emergencies as heat, deadly storms bring misery to millions". CNN. Archived from the original on June 30, 2012. Retrieved June 30, 2012.
  22. ^ "16-hour days, more workers mark AEP storm repair efforts – Columbus – Business First". Bizjournals.com. July 3, 2012. Retrieved December 7, 2012.
  23. ^ Bondus, Brian. "Logan County Courthouse Under Construction". Dayton Daily News, 2014-09-24. Accessed 2014-09-25.
  24. ^ Logan County History Archived 2013-05-30 at the Wayback Machine, Logan County. Accessed 2014-09-25.
  25. ^ Jon Erdman; Stu Ostro (3 July 2012). "5 Extraordinary Derecho Events". The Weather Channel. Archived from the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  26. ^ "UPDATE 5-Storms leave 3.5 mln without power in eastern U.S." Chicago Tribune. Reuters. 30 June 2012. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  27. ^ Hoppy Kercheval (2 July 2012). "Hoppy's Commentary on the Storm". MetroNews. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  28. ^ Brian Todd; et al. (5 July 2012). "In West Virginia, mass feedings planned in wake of storms, heat wave". CNN. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  29. Philadelphia Inquirer
    . Retrieved July 5, 2012.
  30. ^ "Dominion Power outages third-largest after Hurricanes Isabel and Irene | WTKR.com – Hampton Roads News & Weather from WTKR Television Newschannel 3". Wtkr.com. July 1, 2012. Retrieved December 7, 2012.
  31. ^ "Amazon cloud outage takes down Netflix, Instagram, Pinterest, & more". VentureBeat. 30 June 2012. Retrieved December 7, 2012.
  32. ^ "Two people killed in Big Island as a result of Friday's Storm - wdbj7.com". WDBJ7.com. Roanoke, Virginia: WDBJ Television Inc. 30 June 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-02-09. Retrieved 3 July 2012.
  33. ^ "Va. Gov. Issues State Of Emergency Declaration After Storm". CBS Local. June 30, 2012. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
  34. ^ "Impact of the June 2012 Derecho on Communications Networks and Services". Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, Federal Communications Commission. January 2013.
  35. ^ "Maryland Public Service Commission, After Action Review, June 29, 2012 Derecho Storm Event" Archived March 6, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Maryland Public Service Commission. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
  36. ^ D.C. storm 2012: Power out for thousands, nine killed in region, WJLA Retrieved June 30th, 2012.
  37. ^ Montgomery County collecting tons of storm debris Archived 2013-02-09 at archive.today, WTOP Retrieved July 6th, 2012.
  38. ^ George Anastasia; Amy Rosenberg; Jackie Urgo; Frank Kummer (2012-06-30). "Atlantic County hardest hit by storm". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  39. ^ "Camper Tried Desperately to Lift Tree Off of Little Boys". Retrieved 2013-08-03.
  40. ^ "Damage could top $100 million". The Daily Journal. 2012-07-03. Archived from the original on 2013-02-04. Retrieved 2012-07-04.
  41. ^ "Federal Aid Approved for Atlantic County in Wake of Derecho". Retrieved 2013-08-03.

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