Many of us had never heard the word derecho until last June's whomper wall of wind hit the Chesapeake. A boatload of Bay sailors got a serious weather lesson off New Jersey last week and captured these amazing photos and video. Here's the note from Buddy Denham:
All of these photos were taken from Crocodile, a Beneteau First 40.7 with skipper Scott Ward on the return trip after the Annapolis to Newport Race. The location was about 30 miles offshore east of Tom's River, NJ. This was the Derecho storm front that started in the mid-west and continued through PA, NJ, MD that caused much wind damage along the way.
The winds and wx embedded in this (the leading edge of the Derecho that was on the news) were "challenging" to say the least, but the crew/boat came through fine with no drama. The photos are of the shelf cloud in advance of the outflow winds and heavy rain and winds. Winds were estimated around 40 kts (instruments secured for lightening strike).
What is remarkable about this front and the associated shelf cloud is that the massive inflow of air into the front and the sheer size of the storm front. I have observed plenty of storms flying and sailing, but have never observed something of this size and beauty. As you can see, the inflow opened a smooth slot to which the sun from above illuminated the slot. You could see the smooth upward lenticular like feature on the shelf cloud. This only appeared for a few minutes so I quickly grabbed my iPhone just before the fun started!
About 5 minutes later we were engulfed in the thick of the storm with a deluge of rain and wind. We wisely, dropped and secured the main as well as the jib and motored through the storm which lasted all of about 10 minutes as it was a fast moving storm.
Thanks to the Crocodile crew for sharing your story and photos. We're glad you made it through the adventure safely!
