Western EC Iowa | http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/derechofacts.htm#bowecho I believe what we had was a Derecho. We were right on the north edge of it in our neck of the woods, but get south 5-10 miles and everything is flat. I didn't get into the worst of it as far as structure damage, but the corn is FLAT. A cat couldn't walk through it, he would walk on it. Outbuildings, bins, legs, dryers, and even homes in some cases are strewn across fields. I spent all day in Dysart, IA cleaning up as we had no tree or structure damage and it is unreal, apparently worse in other places. Word is 50 miles north to south and 100 plus miles long. Good luck to all who are involved. Ben
Edit to add some info: Local area has had 3 of these since 2004, none have been this big. 2004 was in early August, 2007 was on about the 20th of July and this one today. We haven't started polinating, the flat stuff didn't wake up much through the sunny day today.
I started watching the radar at 445am and the storm was just hitting us and really gaining strength to the southwest. At 540am, it had already pushed through Dubuque, which is about 100 miles ENE from here, we are about 15 miles south of Hwy 20 for reference. That means the leading edge had winds of at least 100 mph, plus whatever winds were in the storm.
Very large seed corn producing area around Dysart that likely will have to be abandoned because it can't be detasseled, they will chop it down or disc it under.
One good thing is the wind was southwest and not northwest. That means when we combine one way on the E/W rows, we can dump on the run! Northwest wind your auger is always over the corn.
Kind of rambling and not complaining - many people won't sleep in their own homes tonight.
Edited by SamsDad 7/11/2011 21:13
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