OT: Big storm coming
Not sure that this is particularly topical, but from what the news is saying, the storm rolling through today will be pretty severe. Some are speculating it will be the worst storm of the year for the Michigan and Ohio region. May want to text your families to put the grills in the garage and whatnot. Be prepared to duck and cover, many will likely lose power for a while as well.
They're calling it a Derecho, which has very strong straight line winds.
/knowing is half the battle
...was crazy powerful. Not looking forward to a repeat performance. Difference is that when the storm came over the Appalachians (sorry everyone), it hit a ridiculous heat source. Temps were still close to 100 that night and it really fueled the storm as it hit the DMV. Since it's not as hot today, I'm hoping for a much smaller event.
I can derelict my own balls!
Any idea of when its supposed to hit the Detroit/Ann Arbor area?
The biggest area of focus is well south of I-94. Timeframe will be later this evening if anyone in Michigan gets the brunt of the storms - mostly Chicago southward to Indianapolis is in the moderate risk.
For the Chicago area they are talking about baseball size hail, flash flooding and even tornados. Hopefully it won't be as bad as what they're saying but they are expecting it to hit here at some point this afternoon and then into the evening. I know I definitely won't be out then.
What will make it bad once I am home is that I have Directv and the Hawks are playing tonight. More than likely I won't be getting any kind of signal if its bad during the game because of the rain and wind.
I have Dish Network, and my signal too goes crappy with storms like this. Not looking forward to the drive home from work in it either, hopefully it comes late tonight through Chicago.
**EDIT: I checked weather.com and lucky me, this is supposed to hit right at rush hour. With luck though it will pass through before the Hawks game starts, but it's supposed to clear up by 9 so at least I should have signal back by the end of the game.
Go Boston (as much as I hate to say that)
Oh yeah, Boston all day.
And most bars use satellite as well, so parking myself at a bar probably won't really help. Missing a bunch of a Cup finals game would suck.
Of course, the really big disaster is if there's a massive power outage. I'm sure United Center has backup generators, but I'd assume it wouldn't be enough to run everything necessary for a Stanley Cup game?
What I had to do the last time that there was bad weather and I was trying to watch a game was to stream the game from my iPad through my Apple tv. Directv offers "live tv" on their app so I was able to play the game on the iPad and then stream it through the Apple tv to my tv. Worked great until the weather got better and I could then watch it through the Directv. Also there is an NBC app that I have on my phone which has been showing all of the games so if for some reason the Directv app didn't have the game streaming I could use the NBC app instead. A couple options in case of bad weather is nice.
southern Michigan in the earlier 2000's (can't remember exact year). They move very fast compared to most storms. So, you need to keep an eye on the radar and don't get fooled into thinking "oh I have at least an hour to do something outside or run an errand". It's not worth being caught out in it. That particular storm sheered off about a dozen power line poles near us and caused an outage that lasted several days. Hopefully, this storm will be nothing that bad.
I would bet that you're thinking of May 21, 2004. It hit on a Friday afternoon, right around 3 PM.
Weather dorks unite! This kind of stuff gets us all tingly inside.
DISCLAIMER: I hope the weather is interesting, but not interesting enough to cause massive mayhem.
But there were also those "supercells" that went right down 131 in 2000. Schoolcraft's first playoff game had to be moved because their pressbox was lying on the 50 yard line.
Oh, goodie. The entire contents of my garage is currently loaded onto 6-foot racks and tarped down in my backyard in preparation for a new garage floor installation. What's worse - the broad side of the racks face, you guessed it, west.
Bad timing...
to reload your garage.
That isn't happening. I'd rather take my chances with the storm. I am going to move the heaviest items to the lower shelves. That'll have to do.
Mods, feel free to embed...I'm not quite talented enough to do so yet.
I'm flying from Arizona to Detroit today ... oh joy.
If it is a derecho, brace yourself. We got one here in central Virginia last summer and we had 100+ mile an hour winds for about 10 minutes, then it was gone. The damage was catastrophic, though. Nobody had power for 3 days, and many people in rural areas didn't get it back for a week and a half.
Do anything you can to prepare
just beyond the parking lot of their apartment in Alexandria. The wind and rain were incredible.
One thing that's good is that last year's derecho was hardly talked about until it already started doing its damage.
Now the thing hasn't even developed yet and there are already warnings out for it.
Science, man.
The proud few who worked for Detroit Edison in 1980 and are still here still talk about the infamous "Green Storm" here, which was the derecho event that impacted SE Michigan in July of 1980. NWS Story here. According to this, the green color was from the low reflective angle of the Sun because it was relatively early in the morning when the storm hit.
It did a lot of damage around Ann Arbor and from about Canton in Wayne County southward. Several portions of the Edison service territory were without power for up to 10 days as a result. Gusts within the storm were reported anywhere from 100 to 150 MPH supposedly.
Adjusted for inflation, the four-state rampage of this event totalled over $1 billion in damage stricly from straight-line wind damage, according to one report on derechos.
My neighbor was just telling me about the green storm and how it knocked down so many trees in her yard. She was saying she had never seen the sky so green.
I was on the road, driving pretty much right into the teeth of the storm. I was forced to pull over, the wiper blades couldn't stay in contact with the windshield.
Just looking for some tips or advice from the MGoMasses
Thanks in advance!
The fact that there may be golf ball sized hail means that when this hits, you'll not want to be driving. Busted windshield for sure if you are. As far as the winds, from what I can tell the big risk is falling limbs and trees. I'd guess that farmland would be relatively safe? I would avoid being out in it, though, if it were me.
My fault, you guys. I washed my car last night.
Hey meteorologist, I'm glad I have this chance to talk to you. It's 3:45 here in Chicago, and it's sunny. What gives?
Looks like the worst of it went through the southern suburbs though.
EDIT: And it's not over just yet either... more storms to your west headed your way.
It is 4:30pm, and is getting dark quickly. Thunderstorms are forecast to begin around 6:45pm. I wouldn't mess around with loose patio furniture, etc. It is a coming.
Ha. We JUST had sod laid in front of house this morning/afternoon. The guys were gone when I got home around 5:30, but I'm assuming/hoping rain is good for it and this worked out beautifully.
Oh and thanks OP. I just ran outside to put our deck chairs and grill in the garage (better safe than sorry). I ran about 100 feet and got completely soaked. Had to towel off inside.
One of my colleagues used to work in the news industry, and she said around the newsroom they used a term to describe the meterologists and weather reporters when they got excited about extreme weather: a weather woody.
.... we haven't had a drop since about 15 minutes after my above post. I chose to run outside in the only, what, 10 minutes of rain we've had all night.
I'm an idiot.
~Herm
Is it just me, or does it seem to anybody else that meterologists have invented at least a half dozen words in the past few years just to make storms sound more dangerous and exotic.
The Elimiator, Terminator
Since I live in NY, I called this one the "Out of Stater"
didn't even notice any weather until I read this thread.. Right in AA.