On 21 May 2022, southern Ontario and Quebec were hit by a “derecho” storm that killed ten people, caused significant damage in the major metropolitan areas of Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City, downed power lines cutting off electrical power to a million customers. For news articles, use search words such as derecho, Canada, and 2022. For example, see FoxWeather’s article: “Damage ‘simply beyond comprehension’: Ferocious derecho sweeps across eastern Canada killilng 10 people.”
In contrast to the circular motion of tornado winds, a derecho is a band of thunderstorms that packs high-velocity straight-line winds along hundreds of kilometres. The National Weather Service of the USA gives a detailed description of a derecho.
The derecho’s winds largely spared Montreal; however, we have a vacation cottage in the Laurentians about 120 kilometres north of the city. The storm had ripped through the Laurentians apparently in full force. Given that our cottage is nestled in the midst of tall trees on sloping land, we were concerned.
After the storm we drove up to check. The dashcam video below shows some damage along the roads, but not nearly as bad as it was in other areas of the Laurentians.
A huge tree fell in the backyard, but did not hit any structure. Our cottage had been spared! What a relief! Thank God.
