Posted by cloudydaze on May 28, 2009, at 14:34:11
In reply to Re: Devastation in Southern Illinois, posted by Larry Hoover on May 27, 2009, at 17:06:33
Everyone is calling it something different. First, the national weather service refered to it as "LIKE an inland hurricane" at first, before they had done any research on it. Now I've heard the word microburst, meso-cyclone, derecho, and mesoscale convective vortex.
heres a cool link on that last one with radar of the storm:
http://www.weather.com/blog/weather/8_19404.html?from=sb_tools_face
There is still debate on whether or not they were straight line winds - I saw trees TWISTED...you would think that would indicate rotation.
Anywho - I'm calling it an inland hurricane even though I know its not. Why? Because it sounds cool, and it captured the feel of the storm...plus, it was the first description we heard of what happened (via radio, because no one had power in 3 counties...)
Only one fatality in Illinois, as far as I know. I think this was due to people being more prepared for it, because we had a weaker storm (we were under tornado warning) earlier the same day. People may have still been hiding out.
Actually it was probably the same storm system, just at a weaker point. I heard that the same storm came thru twice...
poster:cloudydaze
thread:897852
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20090513/msgs/898119.html