East of Niwot, Colorado, at the edge of Hwy 25, I may have experienced the early wisps of the powerful storm known as a “derecho.”
My friend Maria Gutierrez and I had just gotten out of the car to enter a coffee joint when a few raindrops began to hit us. We noted this as welcome coolness from the ongoing heat.
A couple of moments later, as we were choosing a table to sit at, the building we’d entered was suddenly slammed with crazy howling winds slinging rain and mud. The winds were so strong that men could not open the glass doors inward against the pressure. We were all trapped inside the building. (Of course, we did have coffee, so this could be worse.)
Out the other window, the one toward the freeway, we could see things flying by. Lots of things; large things. I was glad we were no longer driving in my little car – it could easily have been pushed across the highway into the other lanes by that intense wind. The sky looked dark and striated, like films I’d seen about tornado weather.
After awhile when the winds had passed, the first new people coming in commented, “What on earth happened to this building?” I went outside to look. Both the entire building and all of the cars outside, including mine, were absolutely covered in thick mud. Wild!
Later, I read in the news that an enormous storm had caused a state of emergency across a wide swath of the U.S. on June 29, 2012. Called a “derecho,” it was said to have spanned from the midwest on to Washington D.C. – but I think we got the beginnings of it in Colorado. I have certainly never seen anything like it before.
Above is a photo of the storm in its glory from NWS meteorologist Samuel Shea. More images and videos can be seen here: http://bit.ly/OQnljC
Straight line winds. They happen here in Minnesota. No spinning. One recently pulled out 5 trees on one side of Lake Calhoun, one tree on the other side, then it was gone.
Mike, interesting. Are straight line winds different from derecho? (I’m from NV/N.CA – I only know earthquakes!)
so Tina, where were you?
Deirdre, we were at the confluence of Interstate hwy 25 and state hwy 52, east of Niwot, CO.
Wow! Scary!
I’m just so grateful that we were no longer driving. Literally, we missed it by minutes. My little car would have likely been flung across the road!
Derecho is apparently the term.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/06/30/156047359/a-land-hurricane-strikes-states-from-midwest-to-east-new-storms-predicted
A ‘Land Hurricane’ Strikes States From Midwest To East; New Storms Predicted : NPR
Hm. Becky, it sure sounds like the description, but we were to the west of the NPR reported locations.
The NPR report was from Saturday morning — sounds like something that can happen anywhere, like what blew through Pasadena this spring.
Here’s more…
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/07/02/156106723/word-of-the-day-derecho
Word Of The Day: ‘Derecho’ : NPR
Did you take the picture? That stuff looks mighty powerful!
What a wild picture!
Wow a mud storm
scary, very scary….
Wow
Well, holy crap, I’m glad you’re okay!
Curious that it was called Derecho, as it moved toward the right of the (traditionally-Western) map. As though it had a right to move, a storm asserting the rights of wind and mud and sky.
Freaky! It’s not nice to fool with mother nature indeed!
Wikipedia says: Derecho comes from the Spanish word for “straight” (cf. “direct”) in contrast with a tornado which is a “twisted” wind