MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) –
It wasn’t a tornado that caused damage in Memphis on July 22, 2003, and contrary to its given name “Hurricane” Elvis, it wasn’t a tropical system either.
23 years ago, it was a derecho that brought destruction at dawn right here in Shelby County.
Early that Tuesday morning a low in Ohio brought a cold front that pushed all the way down into Memphis and the Mid-South.
Before we explain what a derecho is, let’s talk about what happened.
“It doesn’t look that impressive but believe you me, it is very heavy this morning”
Around 6:45 am CDT, thunderstorms crossing the Mississippi River slammed into Shelby County and the heart of Memphis. Winds across the city were recorded up to 109 mph
But these winds were not from a tornado.
“Straight-line winds, not swirling winds like a tornado”
Since those straight-line winds of 109 mph match the criteria for a strong Category 2 hurricane, this event was nicknamed “Hurricane Elvis”.
But this was no hurricane. It was a derecho.
Per the National Weather Service, a derecho needs to meet two criteria.
- A path of damage at least 240 miles long.
- Winds of at least 58 mph along most of that path with localized spots seeing 75+ mph damage
The morning of July 23rd, a line of thunderstorms stretching nearly 400 miles from Northern Arkansas all the way to Northern Alabama met that criteria, with the worst of its damage right here in Memphis.
“There’s a shot from our high-five camera in Midtown. You can see the very heavy — and that looked like a transformer exploding just a moment ago.”
The beginnings of a derecho start off as scattered storms that form in a warm and humid environment ahead of a cold front.
Once these storms become organized and form into a “linear” line, they start to become strong and many times begin producing winds reaching severe limits.
This really becomes a problem when the winds on the backside of the storm becoming stronger than the winds flowing into the storm. Think of this as a wave in the ocean that finally breaks and topples over. It rushes outwards.
As that backside wind rushes outwards, you see a wall of wind overtake a large area and rush through everywhere within sight. This phase is called a bow echo.
In Shelby County alone, this derecho resulted in over $40 million damage. During the storm, a 75 year old man died when a tree fell on his house and crushed him. 3 others were hurt during the storm.
Additional fatalities took place during the storm aftermath, mostly from house fires due to lit candles and carbon monoxide poisoning from generators.
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