The May 21 2022 Historic Canadian Derecho Retrospective

[@StormsQ]

My discord server: discord.gg/QMBSdtxYyK

[@THERES_BEES_EVERYWHERE]

My wife and I were at the tulip festival here in Ottawa in the minutes before the storm hit. She has a fear of thunderstorms so when we arrived at the fest I promised that we would leave as soon as we heard thunder. Wasn't even a minute later when this huge crack boomed across Dows Lake, even though it was so far away it sounded like it was right next to us. Noped out of there pretty quickly and scrambled to get into the car. We got the alert while driving back and that's when we knew it was gonna be bad. Got home just in time to grab our cats and throw em in the basement. Wife stayed down there while I went up on the porch to film. The sky was literally an emerald green and the wind was picking up faster and faster by the second. I've never seen rain come in that fast, but it didn't just come in, it full-on walloped the house. In the video you can see our front yard tree bend in ways I didn't even think were possible. I legitimately thought it was some massive tornado, so I ran downstairs after a few seconds, and from there we could hear the wind whistling through the cracks, and debris hitting our house. We stayed low holding our squirming kitties until it was over, and I went out into the neighbourhood to see just what the hell happened. Our house was really lucky, we have cedar trees protecting the sides so we came out with just very minor debris damage. Our neighbours weren't so lucky, there were trees down all around the street, one completely crushed a backyard fence and community mailbox, and another was this massive oak that fell right between a house and some power lines. Even considering this, our small neighbourhood still had power, but everyone to the north, south, east, and west of us lost hydro. After looking at the damage I grabbed a couple saws and some beers and spent the rest of the day helping to chop up the fallen trees. It was horrible, there wasn't a single part of Ottawa left untouched, and some areas fared much, much worse than others. One of my coworkers had his roof ripped off and had to have the whole house rebuilt. My parents had a tree fall directly on the power lines and the electrical flash set fire to their neighbour's roof. But if there's one thing that came out of the storm, it's the immense relief effort and sense of community that prevailed afterwards. Everybody was helping everybody, we had coworkers coming over to do their laundry, while I was cutting up trees there were passing motorists who just pulled over to help, and this local grocery store down the street from us was selling stuff at 25% price just to help out. It was the most terrifying storm I've ever been through, but the fact that everyone pulled together and made sure everyone else was okay was really amazing to see.

[@StormsQ]

What a story! Thanks for sharing. I live around Mississauga so my area wasn't as hard hit. I was just sitting around all morning watching radar because i was hoping for some lightning to shoot. I was outside to snap a photo and went back inside and 5 minutes later when i came back out i saw the rain curtains flying through the trees. Once i saw garbage cans flipping down the road and after my tripod got blown over i went inside when i heard the warning. The storm passed by pretty quickly but there was some mild damage to trees, roofs and fences in my area. We also got hit by another round of storms later in the day. But that storm wasn't severe, rather just a lightning show. One of the best days of my short storm photography career and a surreal experience. Thanks for taking the time to share your story and for reading mine.

[@xboxgamer8381]

This is the storm that made me fear when it’s a cloudy day

[@chrislittebrant5235]

Thank you for Sharing, Chris

[@SCJYT]

This was was special, I have a video of it impacting. It was also interesting that the alert ready system was activated for the severe thunderstorm warning infront of it, our pds im assuming. Cool vid!

[@comareborn8734]

Was totally unexcepted and a not so nice birthday treat. I was out loading some soil for a customer at my CT when I was hit. 30 seconds in that rain and I was stuck drying my clothes for over an hour in the bathroom. Later found out that one of the deaths occurred less than a 2 min drive from where I was when it hit, scary storm.

[@Dee-0015]

I was in Ottawa when this happened. I still have a Timelapse of the storm coming over. The power outage in Ottawa was crazy. I still remember when the storm was coming we got an emergency alert on our phones and I knew it was going to be a crazy storm because we never get emergency alerts for sever storms.

[@StormsQ]

That's cool! It was definitely a crazy storm

[@Pigeon.mp4]

Out playing tennis when this monster hit in southern Ontario, was a beautiful yet terrifying sight to behold. It was a relatively clear and sunny day, until a few minutes later when strong winds and rain began to occur. Day turned to night as heavy rain slapped the ground and debris was picked up by the wind. If my memory serves me correctly, I recall seeing a small bit of rotation in the sky as well. Overall, it truly was a display of mother nature's beauty and power at the same time.

[@GamerDevXD]

Storms like these might not be as scary as an F5 heading for you house but still gives me anxiety

[@JAKETHECANADIAN]

agreed especially after this one

[@MrSEANDEERE]

I was in The laurentians, around St. Adele Quebec mountain Biking with some friends. I can remember we were trying to "beat the rain" that was coming that afternoon. Little did we know of meteorological monster that was heading our way. I spent alot of time in Florida and I am all to familiar with there powerful short thunderstorms that hit in the afternoon in the summer time. I notice a stark resemblance to those storms...however I noticed the formation I was seeing was absolutely massive....now remember I was at the top of a small mountain and I could see this beast coming from a good few miles out. I pointed it out to my friends for a moment they thought nothing of it...but it bigger....fast. We were not far from out cars but, we just made it back when we heard the thunder Rolling. I told everyone to take cover in a ditch behind our cars cause I honeslty thought a tornado was coming (I know foolish thought in a mountain range) but the force of the wind was absolutely insane. It blew my friends Thule roof cargo hold clean off his car. Once it passed over we were all quite shaken....and very wet. It was one hell of an experience. Weather is truly incredible.

[@StormsQ]

Awesome story! On the point of having a silly thought about worrying about a tornado in a mountain range, although unlikely tornadoes can very well form in mountain ranges. Thank you for this comment!

[@MrSEANDEERE]

@@StormsQ happy to share the story! But yeah I was sure a twister was coming with that wind. Trees were instantly slammed to thr ground and bent like rubber!

[@xboxgamer8381]

I’m so glad that bells corners didn’t get hit that bad

[@jeffbryan4019]

Hey little buddy you did a great job covering this !! Keep up the good work 💯

[@scotthoffman7071]

After the storm the air changed it was very eerie and still i knew something bad was going to happen to me after the storm. Storms never lie

[@carollin6637]

Great work! Subscribed.

[@StormsQ]

Thanks!

[@blubberwx9317]

Great video

[@StormsQ]

Thanks!

[@spannyleetampson]

Always top notch.

[@StormsQ]

Thanks for the kind words!

[@adaturbett8879]

Im in Ottawa and my roof fully ripped off I was one of the areas in Ottawa that was hit the hardest. I'm terrified of storms now but I am also interested in them and what to become a meteorologist.

[@staticoniz3452]

on this day i was in the town of cornwall far south on the 416 corridor, i still got a gust of over 100 kmph

[@theresakelly3100]

As someone in Ottawa when this happened, no we did not have the resources to do this. I personally lost power for 10 days and they had to bring in emergency hydro workers from across the province and some from the US. Ottawa was severely unprepared for this and the fact we never declared a state of emergency is insane

[@karmanjakka]

I'm from London, Ontario. This hit like a bomb! Nothing but a county warning was given!

[@StormsQ]

I know!!! Being around Mississauga during this its a shame because i forecasted it myself but barely any other forecast really predicted it. Also not to mention ECCC in general is not the best at issuing warnings

[@JAKETHECANADIAN]

apparently there was wind gusts in eastern ontario near or in the ottawa valley up to 191 KMH! thats about as strong as an EF2

[@alexandreverdun7619]

Since that the wind is omnipresent here in Montréal, everyday the wind blow.

[@Makeupmumbles]

I decided to go out for a smoke right when this hit, it was crazy

[@damiantrudeau2332]

I witness a barn be destroyed and it because dark. The power was out for 1 week and 3 to 4 weeks with out internet.

[@The_Joshuan_Empire]

Some tornadoes may be stronger but diddly darn their just as scary.

[@creamofthecrop6743]

This just barely missed where I was

[@StormsQ]

Same. My area could’ve gotten worse

[@Pdstor]

//This is the speed of an EF-1 tornado// True! But I like to compare them to hurricanes rather than tornadoes myself, simply because tornadoes add a component that (most of the impacts of) a derecho does not have even if it is as strong as our derecho back in 2020 in Iowa: it does not have the additional local force caused by the rotational aspect of a tornado! You were more of a hawk for yours than I was for mine here in IA. I learned about ours when the sirens were going off 😂🤣but I did redeem myself by making the first posted report on the SPC page for the Des Moines metro area east of I-35. I was FAR more prepared for the very unusual but still very nasty "Iowa Derecho 2: Electric Boogaloo," which I think was also the most tors reported for the Des Moines NWS area in one day ever (mirroring the Iowa Derecho after it went surface based crossing the river into Illinois, where it gave Chicago NWS its second or third highest tornado count on one day!). I also was Johnny on the spot last year forecasting the system that spawned the EF-4 wedge hit Winterset and clipped the furthest Southeast corner of the Des Moines metro barely missing the Bonobo sanctuary (if it is still there). I was not as lucky with "the hailstorm" that dropped memorable hail on most of the city, though my report of the near-softball sized hailstorm that gave our insurance the second new roof to pay for in three years was a quarter-inch shy of the largest that day. But the guilt of hitting the snooze bar on the most damaging storm in American history prevented me from assessing well ahead of time and going up to Marshalltown to prepare for the eye it had. That one did my father-in-law's Marion home a real corn-pone country whoopin. I'd love to join your Discord but I don't know how old you are (no offense). I would love to help encourage someone new and have spoken to high schools before when I was still teaching for my former college and no meteorologist was around to deliver those talks instead (my doctorate is Mathematics), but I thought I did a pretty good job back then. Now, I know you would have kicked my ass in a demonstration! Seriously, no offense meant and I'll love typing long ignorant rants in here in your KZbin chat and getting people to yell at me Internet-style for the silliest stuff (the gift of Autism is a gift that keeps on giving!) but it's kind of a different thing if you're like 15 or something and your parents bust in to see a chat on your Discord server with a grown ass man hanging out in there. I know I'd just go on there and sperg out over weather, assuming other enthusiasts and/or felllow chasers may be there to talk science and BS about our favorite scores, but your parents don't know that, and there could be people watching these with far darker designs. Seriously please be careful with all that if you are under 18 like I'm thinking you may be (even though I'd think Skip Talbot was into making shorter analysis videos if he took your script and read it without saying it isn't his, not yanking your leg at all). Also don't skip AP Calculus BC-level if you have it at your school and study for those math Olympiads and for the SAT or ACT and top your math off. I'll shut up now. If you are 18 or older, please pardon my misintentioned ignorance. Either way, GREAT channel, I stamped subscribe, and I suspect that you'll be down in OKC for college and that I'll meet you under a meso in the Plains someday in the near future where I'll greet you with Mr. Shaw's line: "I hope you bust and I don't!" Cheers!

[@StormsQ]

I like the hurricane perspective too. As for my discord server, I got rid of it a few days ago funny enough but more because I originally used it for the community tab on KZbin before I got it. So it didn’t really have a use and the server got pretty big and too much of a hassle. Also, I have no issue with your advice or “ignorance” in fact i appreciate it. I hope to one day become a meteorologist but I might stay in Canada and maybe take May to go chase down in the plains. But I have a while before that happens. Anyways, thanks for the kind words and the essay to read. Cheers!