The heat wave of 1995 is infamous for the high death toll that occurred in Chicago during July. A persistent stationary from was draped across the Great Lakes region during this time. This front would result in another serious weather event that is one of the worst ever to affect parts of Ontario and New York.
On four consecutive nights, powerful thunderstorm complexes formed along the front and raced eastward. Such complexes are called Mesoscale Convective Complex because they become organized on a larger scale than that of an individual thunderstorm. By definition, they are large and last longer than six hours. They are associated with large wind damage events, tornadoes, hail and very heavy rains. When the wind event extends over 280 miles and has wind speeds of 58 mph or greater, it is called a derecho. Derecho comes from a Spanish word which means “straight aheadâ€, as opposed to a tornado, which comes from a Spanish word for “turnâ€.
On the evening of July 14, 1995, severe thunderstorms were occurring over Upper Michigan and Ontario. They organized into a derecho. The thunderstorm complex rose to heights of 70,000 feet, moved at forward speeds of 70 mph, produced winds to 106 mph and causing as many as 3000 lightning strikes per hour. As the derecho passed the Mackinac Bridge, winds gusted to ninety mph and were sustained at over 80 mph for an amazing ten continuous minutes. Damage in Ontario was severe, with some straight line wind damage rated at an equivalent of F2 tornado damage.
During the early morning hours of the 15th, the bow echo fell with a hellish fury on the beautiful Adirondack Mountain region of upstate New York. , crossed the Adirondack Mountains and much of eastern New York during the early morning hours on July 15th, producing a very damaging derecho. Hundreds of thousands of trees were blown down in the Adirondacks. The value of destroyed timber was placed at $200 million. Another $190 million occurred in New York state. Five people were killed, most of them campers crushed by fallen trees.
