May 31, 1998 Derecho Updated
Jan-24-2007,
Pictures From
Richard Aldrich of Wheeler
I would like to thank Consumers Energy Alma for the "Clipping
Sheets"
During the early morning hours of May 31st, 1998, a special type of squall line called a "Derecho" hit southeast lower Michigan. Derecho is a Spanish word meaning right or right turn, which is given to this type of squall line because of how it is formed. A Derecho usually forms along a nearly stationary front that lies in some sort of west to east direction. That front usually separates a very warm, moist, and unstable air mass to the south, from a relatively cooler and drier air mass to the north. The Derecho usually moves along the front toward the east, and turns to the right (or south) into the warm, moist and unstable air mass. The Derecho moved across southeast lower Michigan from around 6 a.m. until close to 9 a.m. The speed of the line was close to 70 mph, with winds the gusted to 120mph according to the NWS Grand Rapids.
|
Power out, buildings
destroyed as storms rip through Michigan's midsection |
| Thousands of Gratiot County residents were still without power Tuesday following Sunday's devastation storm that carried winds gusting up to 100 miles per hour. The 6 a.m. storm destroyed numerous buildings, uprooted hundreds of trees and left hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across Michigan with out electricity. Although there were reports of funnel clouds being sited near Breckenridge and In Pine River township, they were not confirmed by National Weather Service (NWS) officials in Grand Rapids. The extensive destruction was caused by "straight line winds" that can create more wide-spread damage than a tornado, said NWS meteorologist Mike Heath field. The storm cut a swath approximately 40 mile wide that spanned the entire width of the Lower Peninsula. There were no injuries reported locally that were directly attributed to the storm. More than 15,000 Consumers Energy Co. customers were still without power Monday. Those living in the Ithaca and Ashley areas may not have electricity restored until Thursday or Friday, said Tom O'Brian, the utility's Alma area manager. Service was restored to a few locations in Alma, including Gratiot Community Hospital and city's water treatment plant, early Monday morning. Weather forecasts call for mild temperatures and the chance of thundershowers. The big challenge to Consumers has been replacing more than 6,000 electric poles, O'Brian said. Immediately following the storm more than 600,000 customers were without power statewide. this article goes on including "All schools in Gratiot County were closed Monday and Tuesday. Breckenridge and Fulton rescheduled graduation ceremonies to Thursday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. respectively. and Gratiot Community Hospital ran on emergency generators until power was restored Monday. The reported no major problems. I have many more newspaper articles and pictures (Per Consumers Energy "Thanks" ) from what I call the 2nd ranked storm. mssterling@rural-net.com ( Mid Michigan Weather . Com ) |
A preliminary list of storm damage can be found in the Local
Storm Report. Final damage reports can be seen in the Storm Data
publication for May 1998.
