COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The cleanup was underway in central Ohio on June 30, 11 years ago, after a violent storm system blasted through the Ohio Valley all the way to the East Coast. The bow-echo storm complex killed 22 people and caused $2.9 billion in damages from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic region.
The June 29-30, 2012 storm system, known as a derecho, was something many Ohioans had never experienced before. Storm Team 4 tracked a nearly unbroken trail of damaging winds of at least 58 mph that extended more than 700 miles.
At some points, when the derecho reached central Ohio, wind gusts rose to hurricane force on the leading edge of the intense squall line, accompanied by blinding rain that reduced visibility to near zero at the height of the Friday evening rush hour.
In Ohio, a million homes and businesses lost power, as trees and power lines were toppled. The derecho ran its course through northern Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and across the Appalachians, reaching the Virginia coast early on June 30.
Wind gusts peaked 82 mph at the Ohio State University Airport in northwest Columbus, 87 mph in northwestern Ohio, and 91 mph at Fort Wayne in northern Indiana, causing widespread damage. Thousands of trees were uprooted and toppled thousands, knocking down transmission lines.
In the wake of the storm, blistering heat and high humidity prevailed through the Independence Day holiday, when thousands of Ohio residents were still without power and air conditioning. Heat stress and food spoilage were major concerns.
Derecho events are not rare in the Ohio Valley, and occur sometimes more than once in a single summer, but are not close to the severity of the June 2012.
On August 10, 2020, another historic derecho struck an area from Iowa to central Indiana, killing four and injuring dozens of people. An estimated wind gust of 140 mph was reported at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, causing widespread structural and crop damage. The total cost was a record $11.2 billion for a thunderstorm system in North America.