Remembering the Independence Day Derecho of 1977 (credit: This Day in Weather History)

DISCUSSION: By going all the way back in time to July 4th, 1977, we arrive at a fairly historic weather event in United States weather history.  On that early 1977 July day, thunderstorms developed over west-central Minnesota prior to travelling 800 miles in 14 hours.  During this period of rapid eastward movement, approximately 1,000,000 acres of forest were badly damaged or destroyed, and total damage estimates exceeded $30 million in 1977 dollars.  It was this derecho that caught Fujita's interest in bow echoes storms, and from his research on this case, the term "bow echo" was defined.  There is no doubt that even in the presence of improving Doppler radar technology nation-wide, there still remained to be daunting forecasting issues due to the unusually rapid forward speed of this large storm system.  To learn more about this particular event, click on the following link.

To learn more about other past historic weather events from around the world, be sure to click here!

©2017 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz