A shelf cloud along the leading edge of a derecho photographed in Minnesota

A derecho (Spanish: derecho "straight", pronounced [de̞ˈɾe̞tʃo̞]^[1]), is a widespread and long-lived, violent convectively induced straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms in the form of a squall line usually taking the form of a bow echo. Derechos blow in the direction of movement of their associated storms, similar to a gust front, except that the wind is sustained and generally increases in strength behind the "gust" front. A warm weather phenomenon, derechos occur mostly in summer, especially June and July in the Northern Hemisphere. They can occur at any time of the year and occur as frequently at night as in the daylight hours.

Criteria[link]

The traditional definition of a derecho is a thunderstorm complex that produces a damaging wind swath of at least 240 miles (about 400 km), featuring a concentrated area of convectively-induced wind gusts exceeding 50 kts (58 mi/h, or about 93 km/hr).^[2] Some studies add further criteria, such as a requirement that no more than 2-3 hours separate any two successive wind reports.^[3] Derechos typically possess a high or rapidly increasing forward speed. In addition, they have a distinctive appearance on radar (known as a bow echo) with several unique features, such as the rear inflow notch and bookend vortices, and usually manifest two or more downbursts.

Although these storms most commonly occur in North America, derechos can occur elsewhere in the world, although infrequently. Outside North America they are sometimes called by different names. For example, in Bangladesh and adjacent portions of India, a type of storm known as a "Nor'wester" can be a progressive derecho.^[2]

Etymology[link]

Derecho comes from the Spanish word for "straight".^[4] The word was first used in the American Meteorological Journal in 1888 by Gustavus Detlef Hinrichs in a paper describing the phenomenon and based on a significant derecho event that crossed Iowa on 31 July 1877.

Characteristics[link]

DECCA radar recorded a bow echo associated with deadly winds in the Cleveland area.

Derechos come from a band of thunderstorms that are bow- or spearhead-shaped on radar, and hence are also called a bow echo or spearhead radar echo. The size of the bow may vary, and the storms associated with the bow may die and redevelop. Winds in a derecho can be enhanced by downburst clusters embedded inside the storm. These straight-line winds can exceed 100 mi/h (160 km/h) (in some cases, sustained wind) in these clusters and straight-line wind gusts of up to 200 mi/h (320 km/h) are possible in the most extreme cases.^{[citation needed]} Tornadoes sometimes form within derecho events, although such events are often difficult to confirm due to the additional damage caused by straight-line winds in the immediate area.

On the other hand, with the average tornado in the United States and Canada rating in the low end of the F/EF1 classification at 85 to 100 mi/h peak winds and most or all of the rest of the world even lower, derechos tend to deliver the vast majority of extreme wind over much of the territory in which they occur.^{[citation needed]} Data compiled by the United States' National Weather Service and other organizations shows that a large swath of the north-central United States and presumably at least the adjacent sections of Canada and much of the surface of the Great Lakes can expect winds above 85 mi/h to as high as 120 mi/h (135 to 190 km/h) over a significant area at least once in any 50-year period, including both convective events and extra-tropical cyclones and other events deriving power from baroclinic sources. Only in 40 to 65 percent or so of the United States resting on the coast of the Atlantic basin and a fraction of the Everglades are derechos surpassed in this respect—by landfalling hurricanes, which in the worst case can have winds as severe as EF3 tornadoes.

Area affected by the 30–31 May 1998 derecho event. Purple lines mark the "gust front" at three hourly intervals. "+" symbols mark wind damage or gusts above 58 mph (93 km/h). Red dots and paths mark tornadoes.

Blown trees by downbursts in the Boundary Waters – Canadian derecho of 1999

Certain derecho situations are the most common instances of severe weather outbreaks which can become less favourable to tornado production as they become more violent; the height of the 30–31 May 1998 upper Middle West-Canada-New York State derecho and the latter stages of significant tornado and severe weather outbreaks in 2003 and 2004 are but only three examples of this. Some upper-air measurements used for severe-weather forecasting can reflect this point of diminishing returns for tornado formation, and the mentioned three situations were instances during which the rare but quite possible particularly dangerous situation severe thunderstorm variety of severe weather watches were issued from the Storm Prediction Center of the US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.

Downbursts in general are extremely common in derechoes and the rotor variety can also cause damage in a circular pattern.

Climatology[link]

Derechos in North America form predominantly from May to August, peaking in frequency during the latter part of June into July. During this time of year, derechos are mostly found in the Midwestern United States in order of frequency over the Upper Mississippi Valley, Great Lakes region including southern Canada and Ohio Valley. During mid-summer when a hot and muggy airmass covers the north-central US they will often develop further north into Manitoba or Northwestern Ontario, sometimes well north of the US-Canadian border. North Dakota, Minnesota and upper Michigan are also vulnerable to derecho storms when such conditions are in place. They often occur along stationary fronts on the northern periphery of where the most intense heat and humidity bubble is occurring. Late-year derechos are confined to Texas and the Deep South, although a late-summer derecho struck upper parts of the New York State area after midnight on 7 September 1998.

Derechos have been known to occur in other parts of the world. One such event occurred on 10 July 2002 in Germany. A serial derecho killed eight people and injured 39 near Berlin. They have occurred in Argentina and South Africa as well, and on rarer occasions close to or north of the 60th parallel in Northern Canada. Primarily a mid-latitudes phenomenon, derechos do occur in the Amazon Basin of Brazil.^[5]

On the 8th August 2010, a Derecho struck Estonia. It tore off the tower of Väike-Maarja Church. ^[6]

Classification[link]

Serial derecho

Progressive derecho

There are three types of derechos:

• Serial derecho - Multiple bow echoes embedded in a massive squall line typically around 250 miles (400 km) long. This type of derecho is usually associated with a very deep low. One example of the serial type is a derecho that occurred during the Storm of the Century (1993) in Florida. Also because of embedded supercells, tornadoes can easily spin out of these types of derechos.
• Progressive derecho - A small line of thunderstorms take the bow-shape and can travel for hundreds of miles along stationary fronts. An example of this is the Boundary Waters-Canadian Derecho of 4-5 July 1999. Tornado formation is less common in a Progressive than Serial type.
• Hybrid derecho - Has characteristics of a serial and progressive derecho. These types of derechos are associated with a deep low like serial derechos, but are relatively small in size like progressive derechos. An example is the Late-May 1998 Tornado Outbreak and Derecho that moved through the central Northern Plains and the Southern Great Lakes on 30-31 May 1998.

According to the National Weather Service criterion, a derecho is classified as a band of storms that have winds of at least 50 knots (58 mi/h or 93 km/h) along the entire span of the derecho, which occurs over a time span of at least 6 hours.

Damage risk[link]

Since derechos occur during warm months and often in places with cold winter climates, people who are most at risk are those involved in outdoor activities. Campers, hikers, and motorists are most at risk because of falling trees toppled over by straight line winds. Wide swaths of forest have been felled by such storms. People who live in mobile homes are also at risk; mobile homes that are not anchored to the ground can be overturned from the high winds. Derechos may also severely damage an urban area's electrical distribution system, especially if these services are routed above ground. An example would be the Chicagoland Derecho of 2011, in which over 860,000 customers were left without power.

See also[link]

• List of derecho events
• Convective storm detection
• Mesocyclone
• Severe weather
• Extreme weather

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Ashley, Walker S., et al. (2004). "Derecho Families". Proceedings of the 22nd Conference on Severe Local Storms, American Meteorological Society, Hyannis, MA.
• Ashley, Walker S., et al. (2005). "Derecho Hazards in the United States". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 86 (11), pp. 1577–92.
• Ashley, Walker S., et al. (2005). "On the episodic nature of derecho-producing convective systems in the United States". International Journal of Climatology, 25 (14), pp 1915–32.
• Bentley, Mace L., and Thomas L. Mote (1998). "A Climatology of Derecho-Producing Mesoscale Convective Systems in the Central and Eastern United States, 1986–95. Part I: Temporal and Spatial Distribution". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 79 (11), pp. 2527–40.
• Bentley, Mace L., et al. (2000). "A synoptic climatology of derecho producing mesoscale convective systems in the North-Central Plains". International Journal of Climatology, 20 (11), pp 1329–49.
• Burke, Patrick C., and David M. Schultz (2004). "A 4-Yr Climatology of Cold-Season Bow Echoes over the Continental United States". Weather and Forecasting, 19 (6), pp. 1061–74.
• Coniglio, Michael C., et al. (2004). "An Observational Study of Derecho-Producing Convective Systems". Weather and Forecasting, 19 (2), pp. 320–37.
• Coniglio, Michael C. and David J. Stensrud (2004). "Interpreting the Climatology of Derechos". Weather and Forecasting, 19 (3), pp. 595–605.
• Extreme Convective Windstorms: Current Understanding and Research (Report of the Proceedings (1994) of the U.S.-Spain Workshop on Natural Hazards (Barcelona, Spain, 8–11 June 1993), J. Corominas and K.P. Georgakakos, Eds., pp. 44–55)
• Doswell, Charles A., and Jeffry S. Evans (2003). "Proximity sounding analysis for derechos and supercells: an assessment of similarities and differences". Atmospheric Research, 67–68, pp. 117–33.
• Evans, Jeffry S., and Charles A. Doswell III (2001). "Examination of Derecho Environments Using Proximity Soundings". Weather and Forecasting, 16 (3), pp. 329–42.
• Johns, Robert H., and W. D. Hirt, W. (1987). "Derechos: Widespread Convectively Induced Windstorms". Weather and Forecasting, 2 (1), pp 32–49.
• Przybylinski, Ron W. (1995). "The Bow Echo: Observations, Numerical Simulations, and Severe Weather Detection Methods". Weather and Forecasting, 10 (2), pp. 203–18.

External links[link]

• Facts about derechos (Storm Prediction Center)
• What is a derecho? (University of Nebraska at Lincoln)
• What is a derecho? (Meteorologist Jeff Haby's education page)
• Derecho Hazards in the United States (Walker Ashley)
• Gustavus Hinrichs, Discoverer of the DERECHO (National Weather Service)
• Origin of the term "Derecho" as a Severe Weather Event (Meteorologist Robert H. Johns)

Eduardo Galeano
Eduardo Galeano in 2005.
Born	Eduardo Germán María Hughes Galeano (1940-09-03) September 3, 1940 (age 71) Montevideo, Uruguay
Occupation	writer, Journalist
Nationality	Uruguayan
Period	20th century
Spouse(s)	Helena Villagra

Eduardo Hughes Galeano (born September 3, 1940) is a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist. His best known works are Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire Trilogy, 1986) and Las venas abiertas de América Latina (Open Veins of Latin America, 1971) which have been translated into twenty languages and transcend orthodox genres: combining fiction, journalism, political analysis, and history. The author himself has proclaimed his obsession as a writer saying, "I'm a writer obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America above all and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia."^[1]

Life[link]

Galeano was born in Montevideo, Uruguay to a middle class Catholic family of European descent (Italian, Spanish, German and British descent). Like many young Latin American boys, Galeano dreamed of becoming a football (soccer) player; this desire was reflected in some of his works, such as El Fútbol A Sol Y Sombra (Football In Sun and Shadow). In his teens, Galeano worked odd jobs — as a factory worker, a bill collector, a sign painter, a messenger, a typist, and a bank teller. At 14 years, Galeano sold his first political cartoon to the Socialist Party weekly, El Sol and married for the first time in 1959. He started his career as a journalist in the early 1960s as editor of Marcha, an influential weekly journal which had such contributors as Mario Vargas Llosa, Mario Benedetti, Manuel Maldonado Denis and Roberto Fernández Retamar. For two years he edited the daily Época and worked as editor-in-chief of the University Press. In 1962, having divorced, he remarried to Graciela Berro.

In 1973, a military coup took power in Uruguay; Galeano was imprisoned and later was forced to flee. His book Open Veins of Latin America was banned by the right-wing military government, not only in Uruguay, but also in Chile and Argentina.^[2] He settled in Argentina where he founded the cultural magazine, Crisis. In 1976 he married for the third time to Helena Villagra, however in the same year the Videla regime took power in Argentina in a bloody military coup and his name was added to the lists of those condemned by the death squads. He fled again, this time to Spain, where he wrote his famous trilogy: Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire).

Galeano in 1984

At the beginning of 1985 Galeano returned to Montevideo, where he continues to live. Following the victory of Tabaré Vázquez and the Broad Front alliance in the 2004 Uruguayan elections marking the first left-wing government in Uruguayan history Galeano wrote a piece for The Progressive titled "Where the People Voted Against Fear" in which Galeano showed support for the new government and concluded that the Uruguayan populace used "common sense" and were "tired of being cheated" by the traditional Colorado and Blanco parties.^[3] Following the creation of TeleSUR, a pan-Latin American television station based in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2005 Galeano along with other left-wing intellectuals such as Tariq Ali and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel joined the network's 36 member advisory committee.^[4]

In 2006, Galeano signed a petition in support of the independence of Puerto Rico from the United States of America.

On February 10, 2007, Galeano underwent a successful operation to treat lung cancer.^[5] During an interview with journalist Amy Goodman following Barack Obama's election as President of the United States in November 2008, Galeano said, "The White House will be Barack Obama's house in the time coming, but this White House was built by black slaves. And I’d like, I hope, that he never, never forgets this."^[6] At the April 17, 2009, opening session of the 5th Summit of the Americas held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave a copy of Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America to U.S. President Barack Obama, who was making his first diplomatic visit to the region.^[7] This made the English language edition of the book go to #2 position and the Spanish version to #11 on the Amazon.com bestseller list.

In a May 2009 interview he spoke about his past and recent works, some of which deal with the relationships between freedom and slavery, and democracies and dictatorships; "... not only the United States, also some European countries, have spread military dictatorships all over the world. And they feel as if they are able to teach democracy...". He also talked about how and why he has changed his writing style, and his recent rise in popularity.^[8]

Works[link]

"Fleas dream of buying themselves a dog, and nobodies dream of escaping poverty: that, one magical day, good luck will suddenly rain down on them - will rain down in buckets. But good luck doesn’t rain down, yesterday, today, tomorrow or ever. Good luck doesn’t even fall in a fine drizzle, no matter how hard the nobodies summon it, even if their left hand is tickling, or if they begin the new day on their right foot, or start the new year with a change of brooms. The nobodies: nobody’s children, owners of nothing. The nobodies: the no-ones, the nobodied, running like rabbits, dying through life, screwed every which way. Who are not, but could be. Who don’t speak languages, but dialects. Who don’t have religions, but superstitions. Who don’t create art, but handicrafts. Who don’t have culture, but folklore. Who are not human beings, but human resources. Who do not have faces, but arms. Who do not have names, but numbers. Who do not appear in the history of the world, but in the crime reports of the local paper. The nobodies, who are not worth the bullet that kills them."

— Eduardo Galeano, "The Nobodies" ^[9]

Las venas abiertas de América Latina (Open Veins of Latin America) is arguably Galeano's best-known work. In this book, he analyzes the history of Latin America as a whole from the time period of European contact with the New World to contemporary Latin America arguing against the European and later U.S. economic exploitation and political dominance over the region. It was the first of his many books to be translated by Cedric Belfrage into English. It is a classic among scholars of Latin American history. The book gained popularity in the English-speaking world after the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave it as a gift to the American President Barack Obama.

Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire) is a three-volume narrative of the history of America, North and South. The characters are historical figures; generals, artists, revolutionaries, workers, conquerors and the conquered, who are portrayed in brief episodes which reflect the colonial history of the continent. It starts with pre-Columbian creation myths and ends in the 1980s. It highlights not only the colonial oppression that the continent underwent but particularly the long history of resistance, from individual acts of heroism to mass revolutionary movements.

Memoria del fuego is widely praised by reviewers. Galeano was compared to John Dos Passos and Gabriel García Márquez. Ronald Wright wrote in the Times Literary Supplement: "Great writers... dissolve old genres and found new ones. This trilogy by one of South America's most daring and accomplished authors is impossible to classify."

In New York Times Book Review Jay Parini praised as perhaps his most daring work The Book of Embraces, a collection of short, often lyrical stories presenting Galeano's views on emotion, art, politics, and values, as well as offering a scathing critique of modern capitalistic society and views on an ideal society and mindset. (The Book of Embraces was the last book Cedric Belfrage translated before he died in 1991.)

Galeano is also an avid soccer fan; in his childhood, Galeano had the dream of becoming a soccer player and this desire is the subject of some of his writings, among them Soccer in Sun and Shadow (1995), a review of the history of the game. Galeano compares it with a theater performance and with war; he criticizes its unholy alliance with global corporations but attacks leftist intellectuals who reject the game and its attraction to the broad masses for ideological reasons.

Galeano's Espejos (Mirrors) is Galeano's most expansive work since Memory of Fire. Galeano offers a broad mosaic of history told through the voices of the unseen, unheard, and forgotten. Recalling the lives of artists, writers, gods and visionaries, Galeano's makes "lore out of the mass of history and stories that make this world, and make us human." (Rick Simonson) Mirrors was published in the US in English by Nation Books in June 2009.

Galeano is a regular contributor to The Progressive and the New Internationalist, and has also been published in the Monthly Review and The Nation.

Awards and honors[link]

• 2006: International Human Rights Award by Global Exchange
• 2010: Stig Dagerman Prize

Bibliography[link]

• Los días siguientes (1963)
• China (1964)
• Guatemala (1967 - Guatemala: Occupied Country)
• Reportajes (1967)
• Los fantasmas del día del léon y otros relatos (1967)
• Su majestad el fútbol (1968)
• La crisis económica (1969)
• Las venas abiertas de América Latina (1971) Open Veins of Latin America ISBN 0-85345-279-2 ; ISBN 0-85345-990-8
• Siete imágenes de Bolivia (1971)
• Violencía y enajenación (1971)
• Crónicas latinoamericanas (1972)
• Vagamundo (1973) ISBN 84-7222-307-8
• La cancion de nosotros (1975) ISBN 84-350-0124-5
• Conversaciones con Raimón (1977) ISBN 84-7432-034-8
• Días y noches de amor y de guerra (1978) ISBN 84-7222-891-6 Days and Nights of Love and War ISBN 0-85345-620-8
• La piedra arde (1980)
• Voces de nuestro tiempo (1981) ISBN 84-8360-237-7
• Memoria del fuego (1982–1986) ISBN 84-323-0439-5 Memory of Fire ISBN 0-394-54805-1 (v. 1)
• Guatemala: un pueblo en lucha (1983) ISBN 84-85781-18-X
• Aventuras de los jóvenes dioses (1984)
• Ventana sobre Sandino (1985)
• Contraseña (1985) ISBN 950-9413-06-2
• El descubrimiento de América que todavía no fue y otros escritos (1986) ISBN 84-7668-105-4
• El tigre azul y otros artículos (1988)
• Entrevistas y artículos (1962–1987) (1988)
• El libro de los abrazos (1989) ISBN 84-323-0670-3 The Book of Embraces ISBN 0-393-02960-3
• Nosotros decimos no (1989) ISBN 84-323-0675-4 We Say No ISBN 0-393-30898-7
• América Latina para entenderte mejor (1990)
• Palabras: antología personal (1990)
• An Uncertain Grace with Fred Ritchin, photographs by Sebastiao Salgado (1990) ISBN 0-89381-421-0
• Ser como ellos y otros artículos (1992) ISBN 84-323-0761-0
• Amares (1993)
• Las palabras andantes (1993) ISBN 84-323-0814-5 Walking Words ISBN 0-393-03782-7
• Úselo y tírelo (1994) ISBN 950-742-542-X
• El fútbol a sol y sombra (1995) ISBN 84-323-0879-X Football (soccer) in Sun and Shadow ISBN 1-85984-848-6
• Mujeres (1996) ISBN 968-6719-51-2
• Apuntes para el fin de siglo: antología (1997) ISBN 950-860-055-1
• 100 relatos breves: antología (1998?) ISBN 950-860-066-7
• Patas arriba: la escuela del mundo al revés (1998) 8432309745 Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World (2000) ISBN 0-8050-6375-7
• I Am Rich Potosi: The Mountain That Eats Men photographs by Stephen Ferry (1999)
• Tejidos: antología (2001) ISBN 84-8063-500-2
• Bocas del Tiempo (2004) ISBN 9974-620-16-3 Voices of time: a life in stories ISBN 978-0-8050-7767-4
• Espejos: Una historia casi universal (2008) ISBN 978-84-323-1314-1
• Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone (2009) ISBN 1-56858-423-7
• Los hijos de los días (2012) ISBN-13: 978-8432316272

See also[link]

• List of Uruguayan writers
• Culture of Uruguay

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Eduardo Galeano

• Interview with Eduardo Galeano
• Eduardo Galeano, "The Devil's Devils" (Trans. Mark K. Jensen), Le Monde diplomatique, no. 617 (August 2005), p. 10.
• Sandra Cisneros reads "Los Nadies/The Nobodies" by Eduardo Galeano from Book of Embraces, El libro de los abrazos (1989) "[1]".
• "'Voices of Time': Legendary Uruguayan Writer Eduardo Galeano on Immigration, Latin America, Iraq, Writing – and Soccer," Democracy Now! 19 May 2006
• "Reflections from Eduardo Galeano," The Leonard Lopate Show, 19 May 2006.
• "Writer Without Borders" -- interview by Scott Widmer on In These Times
• "Author of the Month," Escritores.org
• Eduardo Galeano Articles Third World Traveler
• The Guardian: Chávez creates overnight bestseller with book gift to Obama
• Eduardo Galeano Interviewed by Jonah Raskin by Monthly Review, October 2009
• Uruguayan Author Eduardo Galeano Returns with Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone - video report by Democracy Now!
• Haiti Occupied Country