Last week, I and millions of #Houston residents experienced a violent up-close demonstration of the damaging winds of a #derecho (pronounced “deh-REY-cho.”)
Luckily, my condominium unit did not sustain any direct damage. However, my wife and I along with our immediate neighbors were trapped until the next morning due to fallen tree limbs blocking our immediate entrance. (See attached photos.) We were also without electrical power until yesterday.
This is a clip from Friday, May 17, 2024 from Travis Herzog at Houston ABC13 that shows the path of the Derecho that tracked from Austin, TX to Cape Canaveral, FL.
Something that I've had heightened awareness of since moving to Northwest Arkansas is that where we live is in the bullseye for seeing the highest frequency of derechos in the country (now more so even than our first house in NWA).
A derecho is a straight-line wind event that spans a length of at least 400 miles (643 km), is 60 miles wide (97 km), and has winds exceeding 58 mph (93 kph) over most of its length.
"For the millions of people who live in areas with increasing chances of a straight-line #wind event, building resilience and understanding is key to protecting lives and property as the #climate continues to warm.
Critical infrastructure, including hospitals, power grids, industrial buildings, and even public transportation, should be reinforced to withstand strong winds, said Fischer."
Paul Beckwith: "Up to now, since the grid size of most climate models is too large (coarse) to capture SLWs like Derechos, we have not known much about how climate change affects these types of extreme weather events." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQr68zP--Kg#ClimateChange#Wx#Derecho