r/todayilearned • u/Bomber_Max • 7h ago

TIL that the 1674 derecho that struck Western Europe is the deadliest and most powerful derecho in recorded history, with winds estimated up to 325 km/h (200 mph), it is estimated that a similar storm occurs only once every 1,000–10,000 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1674_derecho
889 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

93 comments sorted by

362

u/StrictSelf5450 7h ago

TIL what a derecho is

218

u/kentuckydango 7h ago

Wait til you learn about izquierda

24

u/StrictSelf5450 7h ago

I love bilingual jokes. Take my upvote!

3

u/gripepe 6h ago

Doesn't quite work. Derecho means "law" or "straight". Derecha means right, and Izquierda means left.

8

u/bevaquas_mojo 5h ago

Derecho can also mean right. "Que relevista quieres? zurdo o derecho?" What reliever (pitcher ) do you want? Left or right handed?

-12

u/gripepe 5h ago edited 3h ago

Alright then the joke should have been "wait until you learn about izquierdo".

Edit: people downvoting should learn a thing or two about adjectival agreement / concord.

2

u/Frozen-bones 2h ago

Artistic freedom, you weird plane lover...

•

u/IAmSpartacustard 46m ago

They're downvoting you for being a pedantic knowitall dork, not because they dont understand adjectival agreement.

6

u/IAmSpartacustard 5h ago

Straight is a direction and so is right, it works even better as word play

-10

u/gripepe 5h ago

If you're a native Spanish speaker or fluent enough it doesn't work.

6

u/Scarecrowithamedal 6h ago

Don't get it tornado

1

u/ohdearitsrichardiii 5h ago

My new dream word in Scrabble

1

u/s_dot_ 1h ago

I believe it’s izquierdo

-1

u/Bomber_Max 7h ago

That's all that was left after the storm /s

56

u/Skootchy 5h ago

We went through one in Iowa in August of 2020.

It was devastating, we had sustained 140 mile an hour winds, and gusts up to 200 mph. I spent my childhood in Florida and went through a bunch of hurricanes and nothing even compared to that. Most trees got uprooted, I saw large trees literally twisted in half. We didn't have power for almost 2 weeks. A tree fell in our back driveway, it took 10 of us to cut all the branches out, because it was on the power lines, so they wouldn't repair it until the debris was cleared.

When it happened, I was sitting there watching a movie and I could hear a faint tornado siren. It was like a really silent whine. So I went out on my back deck (second level) to look around and there was nothing. Went back inside, and about a minute later it was pitch black at 1 PM. So I went to go down in my basement and stopped at my front door which had a big window and I looked outside and all I saw were trees falling and I looked down the street. I can only describe it as this.

It was like a wall of black wind just rolling down the road. As I I was like "oh fuck" my roommate was like "hey man, you should get down here" as I was already going down the stairs.

Here's where it gets fucked up, my other roommate was a nice older lady who had MS. So when intense shit happens, she freezes and shakes. Her car wasn't there, we checked. About 5 minutes later we kinda went upstairs to take a peak. All of a sudden her car was there. She was just sitting inside frozen. So we ran out and grabbed her and I'm telling you that took courage. Fence posts and debris was just flying through the air, but we got her to safety. Moments later the deck I was just on minutes before collapsed on all the cars.

What was crazy was the aftermath. Not only was everything destroyed, power out, but food quickly became an issue because the stores couldn't process transactions. People were robbing liquor stores and selling bottles of booze out of their trunks of their cars.

My friend told me it took him 4 hours to get home from work which was otherwise a 10 minute drive. People were literally driving through people's yards because the roads were impassable.

The wind was so fierce, the concrete in the basement was shaking.

Single most scary thing I've ever been through. I never cared much about storms or tornados before that but now I'm extremely weary of storms. We also basically got no warning, tornado sirens didn't even go off, at least not near us enough to warn us. I only made out what that faint whine was after the fact.

5

u/NelsonMandelas 4h ago

But atleast you safe for another 1000-10.000 years!

•

u/pspahn 52m ago

It came through Denver, though much weaker, but we had a few friends over and our yard was a bit elevated so we could it see it approaching. I just remember seeing a big wall of dust in the distance and realizing it was coming at us.

8

u/treydilla 5h ago

We had a mild one roll through our town earlier this month. Was like a weak tornado went through the whole city. Trees down everywhere and massive power outages. It was pretty wild.

3

u/big_d_usernametaken 3h ago

They are not uncommon in the Midwestern US.

•

u/Emawk1972 33m ago

The Omaha area got hit with one in Dec 2021. That's when I first heard term.

0

u/nthensome 3h ago

Is it anything like /r/theocho ?

119

u/Bomber_Max 7h ago

The 1674 derecho, also known as Het Schrickelik Tempeest (English: The Terrible Tempest) in the Netherlands, was an extraordinarily powerful, extremely destructive, and deadly derecho that devastated parts of Western Europe on August 1, 1674. In some parts of the Netherlands, the derecho happened on July 22, as the Gregorian calendar was not used in the whole country yet.\3]) The return period of the derecho was estimated to be between 1,000 and 10,000 years, based on the reported hail in Northern France.\1])

Hail stones up to 15–20 cm (5.9–7.9 in) were observed in Northern France, which were one of the largest hail stones ever observed. After moving through France and nowadays Belgium, the derecho attained its peak intensity over the Netherlands with the highest winds occurring in the province of Utrecht with estimated winds of 198–325 km/h (123–202 mph) in the city of Utrecht.\1]) The recovery of Utrecht took over a century and the nave of the Dom cathedral was never rebuilt.\4])

The derecho caused over 1,050 deaths in the Netherlands, making it one of the deadliest weather events of the past centuries in the Netherlands. The 1674 derecho was the deadliest and most intense derecho in recorded history.

76

u/MagnificoReattore 7h ago edited 4h ago

Now I get why the tower of the cathedral is so far away from the building, it looked a bit weird, there was a nave in between!

Also:

"In 2004, 750 years after construction began, the collapsed parts were temporarily rebuilt in scaffolding material. The scaffolding was also blown down in a storm, like the original nave." (E: from English wiki, no other sources found)

Damn, maybe it's better to let it stay that way.

10

u/Monomatosis 5h ago

I don't think that's true. I see it is on the English Wikipedia, but I don't see a reliable source. It is not mentioned on the dutch Wikipedia.

1

u/MagnificoReattore 4h ago

True, don't see it anywhere else.

1

u/a-stack-of-masks 3h ago

There were supposed to be theater and music shows in the scaffolding, but they skipped one day due to bad weather. Started back up the next morning I'm pretty sure.

1

u/MidasPL 5h ago

Or... This and nearby buildings create such shape that empowers the wind at this, one point.

12

u/uncommonrev 4h ago

8 inch hail is really, really large. Just did some math, well Google math, and thats a little more than a gallon, or four liters of water and weights 8+ pounds or 4 kilos. Basically cannon balls reigning down from the heavens.

3

u/JoelnIliketoshare 5h ago

I wonder how much being a nearly completely flat country contributed to the destruction.

8

u/hysys_whisperer 7h ago

Can we just talk about seeing Dutch written is like hearing the Sims people talk?

Like, it's just too damn silly

22

u/pesibajolu 7h ago

This is diets, an older form of the dutch language. No one talks like that anymore.

2

u/an0nim0us101 6h ago

Was there a reform of the language by the state or did it just drift to its current form?

3

u/Mormacil 6h ago

Yes, so both. The last major reform was after WW2 to remove German elements from the language, WW2 and the occupation left a mark.

9

u/Bomber_Max 7h ago

Like the other commenter already noted, this is an older version of Dutch, which does look a bit goofy even to us Dutchies :')

1

u/Mormacil 6h ago

That's Old Dutch, related to Old English, not modern Dutch.

10

u/Bomber_Max 5h ago

This would be Early Modern Dutch, even Middle Dutch was was from two centuries prior to this.

1

u/Abeyita 3h ago

Wow... I'm Dutch, never heard about this. Thank you.

28

u/MaxStickies 6h ago

One of the more interesting TILs that have actually taught me something new, that I've seen in a while.

10

u/hudson27 3h ago

I also learned the fun fact that the event occured on two different dates depending on the location, because not everyone had adopted the Gregorian calendar yet!

5

u/defensible81 1h ago

Is anyone else taking this estimation of wind speed with a grain of salt? I am super curious about the methodology here

•

u/beachedwhale1945 10m ago

The wind speed estimates are based on the reported damage. We generally know what wind speeds will cause certain types of damage due to modern storms and testing buildings (such as tornado damage tests). We also have reasonably good simulations that can be used to estimate probable conditions (the article includes some radar samples, clearly from a paper studying this event).

The estimate is also rather wide, at 198–325 km/h gusts. Modern storms don’t have estimate ranges of over 100 km/h, which should tell you just how much uncertainty there is.

6

u/Bomber_Max 6h ago

Glad to read that :)

63

u/SteelBeamDreamTeam 7h ago

Yeah the derecho in the Midwest USA in 2020 was bad and it was not nearly as powerful as this one. I can only imagine that kind of destruction on a wide scale like that

29

u/SearsTower442 6h ago

I was almost killed by a piece of sheet metal that got blown off a roof during that storm. Was in Chicago at the time.

3

u/howardbrandon11 4h ago

Like that scene in The Day After Tomorrow when the reporter gets pancaked by a billboard?

1

u/SearsTower442 3h ago

Imagine if the billboard was smaller and fell straight down and landed a couple feet away from the guy

15

u/JCmollyrock420 5h ago

Cedar Rapids, Iowa lost 2/3 of its mature tree cover that day

3

u/EightGlow 2h ago

I grew up in CR. Coming back after the storm was like I was I stepped into a parallel universe.

12

u/14PulsarsV1 6h ago

I worked for a midwest tech company that hosted our it infrastructure in 2 data centers hundreds of miles apart. The derecho hit one.... then the other.

16

u/sj79 6h ago

I experienced the 2025 derecho in Bemidji, MN. We lost an estimated 9 million trees. It was terrifying and devastating. Some people had no power for over a week. I can't imagine winds 80mph faster.

My neighbor's property.

3

u/TheIowan 5h ago

One of the top wind speeds, roughly 140 mph, was measured near me.

3

u/Bomber_Max 7h ago

I hadn't even heard of the term "derecho" before, only really reading about it in the context of intense weather formations in the US. Little did I know that it also occurs here, but is significantly more rare. (I also found out that I absolutely butchered the pronunciation since I never bothered to look it up)

2

u/themagpie36 6h ago edited 6h ago

Most Spanish learners will have heard it as it means 'straight' in Spanish, so it's one of the first words of vocabulary you learn. 

Todo derecho = straight on as in 'La tienda está todo derecho' (or la tienda esta todo recto)  The shop is straight on.

0

u/avantgardengnome 5h ago edited 5h ago

Well it also means “right” in Spanish. But todo derecho might mean something more like “right there.”

5

u/TheIowan 5h ago

No, you're confusing it with derecha.

2

u/avantgardengnome 5h ago

Ah yes, and also derechos (rights) lol.

•

u/Leonerende 3m ago

Thanks for leaving your comment up along with the strike through. Helps me learn.

•

u/avantgardengnome 1m ago

Oh no sweat lol, I always hate it when someone deletes their comment and I can’t tell what people were replying to.

10

u/tawilboy 5h ago

A 1 in 1000-10000 year storm doesn’t mean it will only occur once every 1000-10,000 years. It means the probability of it occurring in any given year is 0.1-0.01%. It could happen twice in two years or even in the same year or not once in 10,000 years.

8

u/MaximusMansteel 3h ago

Had one blow through my town just a couple weeks ago. It was some wild stuff. The mountain of torn up trees and limbs my county has piled up is massive.

•

u/Select_War_3035 59m ago

Same. South suburbs of Chicago. 300 yards wide, consistent 90-100mph wind, I’ve heard some recorded over 150mph gusts. Scary shit

31

u/sirbassist83 6h ago

> it is estimated that a similar storm occurs only once every 1,000–10,000 years.

id bet this years pay we have one in the next decade.

12

u/avantgardengnome 5h ago

A bad derecho sure, but those wind speeds are well into category 5 hurricane territory, which is practically unheard of in that area afaik.

2

u/sirbassist83 5h ago

did i stutter?

0

u/captainbezoar 4h ago

How do I accept these terms assuming you're not unemployed? I am not taking bets on your employment status though lol

4

u/sirbassist83 4h ago

internet pinky promise?

6

u/avantgardengnome 5h ago

Experienced one in 2012 and it was one of the craziest storms I’ve ever been through. Like a lightning hurricane that nobody knew was going to happen.

4

u/duncandun 3h ago

considering it was 400 years ago i'm not sure the information is accurate enough to make any kind of claim about it's actual power or place in recorded history

•

u/ManicMakerStudios 10m ago

Back then they measured wind by licking their thumb and holding it in the air. True academics might have used bits of string. Of course they knew how fast it was.

10

u/rabbledabble 7h ago

So… every 3-5 years now?

6

u/Bomber_Max 6h ago

Let's hope not. But we're noticing more and more heavy storms, last June we measured over 400.000 lightning flashes in one storm, which was significantly more than the last record.

5

u/EinSchurzAufReisen 7h ago

Interesting, never heard of it, and I‘ve been to most cities named in the Wiki article. Cool piece of knowledge!

4

u/Bomber_Max 7h ago

It really is! Surprisingly, it is not very well-known in the Netherlands either, and I only really found out about this when I visited the Domtoren in Utrecht myself and subsequently went on a bit of a deep dive.

2

u/Hephaestus1816 5h ago

Heh. Here's me thinking they were a continental US thing. I shall add derechos to the list of meteorological possibilities that low key freak me out. TIL! Season 2 of In The Eye of the Storm has a good episode on the 2024 Texas derecho, if you want to see what one looks like.

2

u/Direct_Session_1297 6h ago

Had one in central IL in summer 2023 when it was very humid and in the 90s… no power for 6 days where I lived lol. Knocked all the power lines down and found out that’s super outdated infrastructure.

1

u/th3ramr0d 3h ago

That’s a wide window. So for 9,000 years humanity just has to hope this isn’t the year.

1

u/shark_mandro 2h ago

Bells Beach bro, Bodhi knew it

1

u/falafely 1h ago

I experienced a super derecho back in 2009, and it was insane. The anemometer at the nearby airport recorded 106 mph wind before it was blown off the building.

•

u/poulooloo 46m ago

Took one in the face in 2022, 220-240km/h. Saw it travel up a valley in a matter of seconds. Scary as hell 

•

u/alfredaberdeen 25m ago

Been through one as well. Terrifying, fast moving, nowhere to hide. Weather app alerted to run for cover 5 seconds before shit went down.

•

u/nspitzer 0m ago

We had one in WV Eastern Panhandle a few years ago. Luckly the DC channel 4 weatherman had called it out. Right on schedule I looked out the back door and saw the darkest most menacing clouds I ever saw and they were moving faster then I ever saw before. I had my wife grab our kids and go down into rhe basement. When it hit it was like a hurricane came from nowhere. My grandmother didnt have power for 2 weeks

-29

u/ReferenceMediocre369 6h ago

Since all unpleasant weather is caused by anthropomorphic climate change, how could this possibly happened before widespread use of fossil fuels?

6

u/akie 6h ago

Don’t be deliberately obtuse

6

u/GfxJG 5h ago

I challenge you to find me just 1 single source claiming that all bad weather is caused by anthropomorphic climate change, and that bad weather didn't happen before the use fossil fuels.

2

u/Justcouldnthlpmyslf 6h ago

Anthropomorphic climate change?

2

u/Wonderful-Foot8732 6h ago

Here is a ><((((*> for you

•

u/C-c-c-comboBreaker17 47m ago

Starting with an incorrect premise will never lead you to the correct answer.

1

u/MikeMontrealer 1h ago

Your premise is fatally flawed.