Last Week a Microburst; This Week a Derecho

Here we go again!  As is becoming the norm here in the greater metropolitan area, we were hit with another band of super-violent thunderstorms on Friday night.  This week they came through a little later than last week.  Last week the power was off for a mere five and one half hours.  This week it was off for a little over 24 hours.

As you will recall, last week we were told by the news media that we had a "Microburst."  This week we are told that we had a "Derecho."  For those of us who do not know what a "derecho" is (and I include myself in that group until this weekend), here is the definition according to Wikipedia:

A derecho (Spanish: derecho "straight", pronounced [de̞ˈɾe̞tʃo̞]^[1]), is a widespread and long-lived, violent convectively induced straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms in the form of a squall line usually taking the form of a bow echo.


I would wholeheartedly agree with that definition based on what I witnessed Friday evening around 11:15pm.  What follows are some pictures of this weeks devastation.

You see here that a huge section from the very top of this tree snapped off and fell on the high-voltage wires just on the corner of Crest Avenue and Carlyle Street.  What you do not see is the flames and the fireball that rose high in the sky when this happened, igniting the section that fell on the wires.  I stood at the front door in abject horror waiting for the flames to make their way to the tree in my front yard and eventually to my roof.  Thankfully, the rains came and doused the flames before that happened.  I immediately called 911 when I saw the flames and was told by the operator there that they would do nothing and that I needed to call PEPCO.  I will reserve any further comment on that.

A close-up shot of the limb entangled in the high-voltage wires.

Sometime during the night, PEPCO showed up and removed the limb from the wires and fixed whatever needed to be fixed and got the electricity back on.  This was the aftermath of that endeavor.

This is what caused all the problems.

One lonely branch clinging on in its desperation to avoid the wood chipper.

I agree with the sign.  "Stop the Storms!!"