The "Green Storm" of July, 1980 (Southern Michigan "Inland Hurricane" or "Derecho")

[Berkeley Brett]

I wonder if any of you remember the "green storm" of July 15-16,
1980? If so, I'd be interested to hear your recollections of it.

Of storms I've endured, I don't think anything quite compares to that
one.

Living in Dearborn Heights at the time, I remember watching the mostly
clear, blue sky with amazement as a vast eerie, greenish black cloud-
cover moved in from the horizon at unusual speed. I'm confident I've
never seen a storm with such a pronounced "differential" -- one very
distinct and violent weather system invading a clear, quiet weather
system.

I decided to hop online to see if I could find anything about that
remarkable storm. Was it as remarkable as I had remembered it?

Indeed, I am not alone in my memories of that fateful storm!

Apparently, meteorologists have a special name for this kind of
storm. Although one hears the name "inland hurricane," apparently the
technical name is a "derecho".

Here is the National Weather Services page on the "1980 Derecho". The
title is apt! "Nice and bright" to "Black as night" -- very much as I
remember it. (The section "birth of a Hybrid Derecho" describes the
conditions of the storm.)

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/stories/1980derecho.php

=== begin quoted text ===

... The derecho surged quickly east across Northern Indiana and
Southern Lake Michigan with a measured wind gust of 98 mph at the St.
Joseph Coast Guard as it blasted onshore in Southwest Lower Michigan!

While the sky was relatively bright at sunrise over Southeast Lower
Michigan, a band of foreboding clouds advanced in quickly from the
west, covering the celestial dome. As the forceful storms and
associated hurricane force winds approached the area, several
observers remarked about the horrid dark green color the sky took on
as the squall moved overhead. In fact, numerous people over the years
have commented about the "dark pea green sky" that accompanied the
July 16th 1980 storm. The green color in the sky may have been
reflective of the low sun angle at the time (the derecho moved through
region between 730 and 930 AM EDT) and abundance of moisture in the
low clouds. It got so dark that many street lights were triggered and
popped on over portions of the region. Severe thunderstorm warnings
were issued over the region though some remarked: "it happened so
quickly and early in the day, it caught us off guard".

The hardest hit regions across Southeast Lower Michigan were Washtenaw
and Wayne counties, extending mainly from the Ann Arbor area east into
southern sections of Detroit (or south of the Ford Road /M-153/
corridor). While the wind officially gusted to 71 mph at Detroit Metro
Airport, much higher winds were reported in other areas (see storm
report below) in the strongest core of the derecho....

=== end quoted text ===

This person has posted some photos of the destruction that was wrought
on the Ecorse Drive-In (photos at bottom):

http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com/location.asp?id=100&type=1

=== begin quoted text ===

Entry Date: 3/27/2009 - nick: The damage to the drive-in was not done
by a tornado. I remember this storm very well. I was 8 years old and
the worse storm of my life struck the Metro-Detroit area on a Saturday
morning in July of 1980. The sky and the air turned green, and when it
was over there was substantial damage done in the area. My family and
I lived in Westland and traveled that afternoon to Taylor to check on
my grandmother''s house who was up in Northern Michigan at that time.
I remember going by there and seeing the damage. This was a special
place to my dad as my grandfather had moonlighted there on weekends in
the 1960s. I will never forget that day....

...Entry Date: 11/11/2008 - Donnie Love: There was a picture in the
local paper when the screen blew down where someone had spray-painted
"Gone With the Wind" on the marquee. I''d like to see that picture, or
one similar. I worked at Ecorse Drive-In during the summer of 1987. It
was the most fun job I''ve ever had. On more than one occasion, I had
to kick some of my friends out for being too rowdy. At night, after
all the customers left we used to have water gun battles. Some of the
guys spent money on elaborate water guns. Back in those days you could
buy water guns that looked very realistic. I could tell a lot of
stories about that place. I had some good friends there: Eric, "T is
for Tom." Sadly, that was the year the drive-in closed forever. ALL
HAIL EMPEROR RANDY!

=== end quoted text ===

Some personal anecdotes about the "green storm" at this webpage:

http://forums.murc.ws/archive/index.php/t-35370.html

=== begin quoted text ===

13th August 2002, 08:28
Originally posted by Dr Mordrid

4. I was at work at a local trauma hospital when the storm arrived.
When it hit there was a Lincoln Continental (huge sedan) pulling up to
our emergency entrance. When the driver opened the door the wind
caught it, ripped it off its hinges and blew it almost 200 yards. It
finally stopped when it impacted our long term care facility on an
outside wall, shattering all the bricks for a 4 foot radius.

He's lucky he didnt pull up the other way around and have the door
slam shut on his leg as he got out!

Dr Mordrid....

.... Greebe
13th August 2002, 08:32

Like the storm that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald up on lake Superior on
November 10, 1975 when two massive warm and cold fronts collided in
what was "a Perfect Storm"... this was a Green Storm.

Lake Superior is one of the most dangerous waterways in the World,
even Jacques Cousteau commented he would never return as it was more
difficult to deal with than any other body of water he has ever
experienced due to the wind, waves, current, frighteningly cold and
deep ( http://www.greatlakeslodging.com/regions/lakes/superior.shtml )

I lived in the UP of Michigan for a few years and can attest to all of
the above....

=== end quoted text ===

I did not recall that this "green storm" coincided with the Republican
Convention in Detroit that nominated Ronald Reagan as their
presidential candidate!

http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id101.htm

=== begin quoted text ===

Tuesday, 15 July 1980
Gerald Ford reportedly declines offer to be Republican VP nominee in
meeting with Ronald Reagan; Ford recommends George Bush.....Reagan
meets with black Republicans and Henry Kissinger.....Arkansas declares
state of emergency due to heat wave.....Missouri said to have the most
heat-related deaths during current crisis.....President Carter
approves funds to help poor survive heat wave in Midwest and
Southwest.....Firefighters and paramedics strikes in Mobile, AL;
National Guard called in to replace them.....Charles Dederich, founder
of drug treatment center Synanon, pleads no contest to charges of 1978
attempted murder, using a rattlesnake, of attorney Paul
Morantz.....Released American hostage Richard Queen said to have
multiple sclerosis.....Zenko Suzuki is named Japan's new prime
minister.....International Olympic Committee says it will raise
American flag at Moscow Games closing ceremony; U.S.
protests.....Arabs and E. European delegates stage walkout when Anwar
Sadat's wife Jihan addresses UN conference on Decade of the
Woman.....Billy Carter says he did nothing to help Libya; some
Republicans call for congressional investigation of his ties with
Libyan government.....Federal board approves additional loan
guarantees for Chrysler Corporation.....England celebrates birthday of
the Queen Mother.....Iran closes borders for 48 hours due to recent
coup attempt.....First round of Palestinian autonomy talks between
Egypt and Israel end today in Cairo with no sign of progress.....Majed
Ahmad Khamis arraigned in San Francisco for threatening president's
life.....Soviet troops in Afghanistan said to be suffering heavier
casualties than Kremlin expected.....U.S. selling Britain Trident
missiles for nuclear subs.

Wednesday, 16 July 1980
Republican party formally nominates Ronald Reagan as its presidential
candidate at Detroit convention; Reagan denies offering Gerald Ford VP
spot on ticket a second time; Reagan said to be reluctant to choose
moderate George Bush as running mate.....Chicago Sun-Times announces a
Reagan-Ford ticket.....Spanish ambassador to Moscow, Juan Antonio
Samaranch, chosen to succeed Lord Killanin as president of
International Olympic Committee.....Athletes from 29 nations
participate in Liberty Bell Classic games at University of
Pennsylvania, first of several events scheduled as alternative to
Moscow Olympics.....Windstorm destroys trailer park in Eau Claire, WI,
severe storm leaves many in Detroit without power.....China (PRC)
expresses concern that U.S. would restore full diplomatic relations
with Taiwan if Reagan is elected.....Secretary of State Edmund Muskie
warns that Republican desire for nuclear superiority over USSR could
start new arms race.....FBI investigates news leaks from White House;
President Carter requests sworn affidavits from advisers.....Policemen
join striking firefighters in Mobile, AL.....Sniper fired on Miami
police in Liberty City section last night, five policemen
hit.....Natural gas field discovered off coast of Norway.....Simulated
nuclear accident scheduled at Three Mile Island plant
today.....Japanese automakers say they will not reduce exports to U.S.

Thursday, 17 July 1980
Ronald Reagan gives acceptance speech at Republican national
convention tonight; picks George Bush to be his running mate; Bush
downplays ideological differences between himself and
Reagan.....Campaigning in Florida, President Carter phones Reagan,
challenges him to debates.....In London, independent presidential
candidate John Anderson meets with British Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher.....Federal judge orders Anderson's name placed on Ohio
general ballot.....Disneyland celebrates its 25th
anniversary.....President Lidia Gueiler reportedly seized during coup
in Bolivia.....Florida National Guard called in to Liberty City
section of Miami due to racial unrest and violence there.....Zenko
Suzuki becomes prime minister of Japan.....

=== end quoted text ===

It was an amazing storm. And I'll be glad if I only witness one such
storm in my lifetime!

As to another noteworthy storm, I do not remember it (strangely) even
though I was not living very far away....

The West Bloomfield Tornado of March 20, 1976:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/wbtor.php

=== begin quoted text ===

March 20, 2001 marks the 25th Anniversary of the West Bloomfield F4
tornado. This tornado was the last violent tornado (F4 or F5) to
strike Southeast Michigan. The tornado touched down at 7:15 pm, March
20, 1976 near Halsted Road between 13 and 14 Mile Roads, along a sharp
cold front crossing Michigan. The tornado cut a path (Figure 1) four
miles long and 350 yards wide across Oakland County before dissipating
near Maple Road between Middlebelt and Inkster Roads. The tornado
killed one, injured 55 and produced $50 million (or about $155 million
in 2001 dollars) in damage. [map shown at web link]

=== end quoted text ===

--
Brett (in Berkeley, California, USA)
http://www.100bestwebsites.org/
"The 100 finest sites on the Web, all in one place!"
Widely-watched non-profit ranking of top Internet sites

[littl...@gmail.com]

My parents told me about this storm many times
The reason why they told me was because it hit just after I was born, my father said it was like a tornado mixed with a hurricaneit was the worst storm that Michigan has had I didn't believe him so I looked it up

[mystic...@gmail.com]

I was sleeping and I woke up with a start and looked around my room and it was dark and green, I remember the green. It seemed like it came from northwest vs southwest which I thought was odd and then it hit. I ran into the center of the house and the winds were just howling and the tree tops were bent almost halfway. The intensity seemed to last a long time and I remember looking at the other people in the house and they all had fear etched in their faces. All we could do is hope and pray and then suddenly silence and it was gone as quickly as it had hit.

[nowwhats...@gmail.com]

We call it 'The Green Sky Storm".
I recall the storm, vividly. I have never witnessed one like it.
I was 8, we lived in Westland. Ford road and Venoy area.
It was Saturday morning, we had slept out in our pop-up camper, in the driveway.
What started as a glorious summer morning, got pretty crazy.
Mrs. Vincent across the street told us we should roll up the truck Windows, because a storm was coming. I recall checking the sky, and being very surprised to see a white ribbon (round like a tube, actually), followed by green, ominous air, racing across the sky from west to east.
I don't recall if I ever rolled up the truck Windows.
I do recall the wind. Howling, roaring, moving everything. We watched from the kitchen,
"There goes the picnic table umbrella! Is that a shed?!"
We were taught when the tornado sirens sound, we get all our pillows, and get in the hallway in the middle of the house. We did that...
The power went out, and stayed out for several days.
One of our trees in the back yard ended up leaning on the power/phone lines. A branch from one of the back yard trees fell on the pop-up, and crushed it. A branch also landed on our rabbit cage (my older sister and a friend had brought the rabbit into the house early in the storm).
Freaky.
I also recall driving down to SW Detroit to check on great aunt Dorothy, later that day. It took forever, all the traffic lights were out and a lot of the roads leading to the Vernor-Springwells area were flooded.
To this day, when there is a storm coming, I go out and check for that white ribbon, and green air.

[kristi...@gmail.com]

I was in summer school at Annapolis High School in Dearborn Heights when this storm hit. The classroom was right next to a little open area in the center of the school with ducks and chickens maybe? in it. When the storm went over I was crouched against an inside wall watching the animals get sucked up into the sky never to be seen again.
After it ended they let us go home a couple hours later when they felt the power lines were all dead. There were so many trees down you couldn't drive a car into the neighborhood. My dad had to park at the kmarts a half mile away. We partied to bonfires of freshly cut wood in backyards for a month without power. I thought chainsaws were cool until then.... I saw garages knocked over cars crushed under trees.

[tl...@yahoo.com]

I remember it very well. I was living in Honeytree Apartments on Joy Rd and I-275. I was just off work that morning and watching the movie Oklahoma when I noticed that outside looked really weird and I saw some lightning. I went to the doorwall and saw that the sky had turned a really weird dirty fishbowl green and the clouds were quite literally boiling. A few moments later the wind and rain started. I watched as debris flew by, mainly shingles and tree branches and then part of the carports tore loose. I went out in the hall where several other tenants had already gathered as we feared a tornado. A few minutes later a guy yelled from the second floor that he needed help, so we ran upstairs. Part of his roof was damaged and water was pouring in. We helped him move his TV, stereo system and a few other things down to his storage locker.

After the storm I was surprised to find that my car wasn't damaged at all even though it was parked near the damaged carports. We went to my roommate's mom's place off Ford Rd also in Canton dodging downed lines, trees and other debris and found the huge willow tree in her side yard was uprooted and laying on its side parallel to the house.

That was the weirdest storm I have ever lived through in all my 60+ years (although now that I'm living in southwest Florida that might change).

[tam.mo...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 4:53:55 AM UTC-4, Berkeley Brett wrote:

I rememember this storm quite well, my wife and I had immigrated to Windsor Ontario canada (acrross Detroit river from Detroit) previous November, I was on afternoon shift at GM Transmission Plant and had taken her to work downtown Windsor. On way home I stopped for breakfast and while I sat in a McDonalds on Tecumseh Ave. the sky turned green and the wind was so strong the rotating sign for the Tecumseh Mall opposite could not rotate and looked like it might actually rip off. I moved away from my window seat and watched in awe from the centre of the resturant. My wife told me later she had evacuated the 14th floor office on advice of senior co-worker and on the ground floor people had to be helped into the lobby as they could not open the doors agaist the wind. An interesting friday for a couple of newly arrived Brits who had never seen such a powerful storm.

[Ed Stasiak]

> Berkeley Brett

>
> I wonder if any of you remember the "green storm" of July 15-16, 1980?

I was 12 years old and vividly remember the spooky green color of the sky and
that this was the only time we ever went into the basement during a tornado
warning, as even my mom (who had survived WWII) was freaked out by it.

[emeraldco...@gmail.com]

I was four years old at the time, and lived in the outskirts of Ypsilanti on the Ford Road corridor.

But, I remember my mother waking me up and dragging me to the living room (which was the middle of our house) where she and my older brother were taking shelter. We had two couches in our living room. My brother was on one, and I was on the other. My mother had us both cushioned with blankets and pillows while she frantically went from one window to another looking at the storm while checking on us at the same time.

I don't remember being scared at all. But I do remember seeing the greenish-tinted sky outside. Our living room had a large window which overviewed our back yard.

After the storm, we were without power for a very long time; Days, maybe even weeks, since we lived far away from a main city.

I remember later that day, we got in the car and drove around to check on neighbors, and I remember seeing downed trees and telephone poles almost everywhere.

[gsl2...@gmail.com]

The Ecorse Movie Drive in on Ecorse Road in Taylor blew down. The storm hit around 9AM, a car parked in our lot off of 94 had the driver side window blown in by a small bird that had was got up in the wind. Of course the name of the storm, no one had ever seen a green sky and eerie green lighting effect before or since.

[justin...@gmail.com]

I just seen a pic online of a green storm. It it immediately reminded me of this and found this group. I can't believe it was 1980. I was thinking it was mid 80s because I remember it so well. Anyways I was five at the time and loved storms (still do) and this one scared me. We all went into the basement and when we went out after it looked like a war zone. Trees and power lines down everywhere. We lost power for over a week. I remember I was givin a single flash light and hung it from the light in the middle of my room. I also had a radio that ran on one 9v battery that had shirt wave radio capabilities. I told my parents I needed a 9v for my radio. She told me no and that radioes ran off of more than one 9v. Not true and I showed her days later that was all I needed and she apologized for not giving me one. We also made forts from all the downed branches.

[pame...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 4:53:55 AM UTC-4, Berkeley Brett wrote:

Absolutely remember that storm!
The children were scared of storms for years afterwards thinking every thunderstorm would be the same. Took a good 5 years for the kids to forget it.
At the time I lived in Wayne and worked in Detroit. I was working in the McCord Building which is now the HAP offices right across the street from Henry Ford Hospital.
The day was a bright blue sky kind of July day. Without warning, as I looked out the windows on the 5th floor, I could see straight down West Grand Blvd. looking west. What caught my attention was the sky suddenly turned a pea-green soup color. Everything outside looked like 3-D. The lighting was different and the sky was the color of something you know is going to be really bad. Very unnatural with a 3-D look and not a single leaf was blowing. Everything was deathly silent and still. As I looked out the window, I could see the horizon from end to end was black as midnight and was headed our way. It was surreal as I watched it come in. It was as if there was a black window shade being evenly pulled across the sky as you would a window shade. As the blackness marched in my direction, the streetlights on the Blvd. each turned on in timed sucession, "blink", 'blink', 'blink' as the black line came closer. When the storm came within a couple of blocks, the large windows in my building started heaving in and out and I had to get away from the glass. That heaving glass broke me out of my hypnotic state that weather had put me in as I had never seen anything like it before. We went down into the loading dock area in back since it was low and concrete walls. We saw a co-worker just pull into the lot and she couldn't get out of the car because of the driving rain. I grabbed an umbrella and ran out to assist her in the building. I took two steps out of the building and the wind was so strong it grabbed my umbrella and I pulled against the wind with all my strength and the wind took the top off my umbrella and spun it off into the wind like a frisbee and out of sight. I stood there with a stick in my hand and my shoes actually filled with water while I stood in them! I was absolutely drenched in a matter of seconds. It was pitch black out and we were in some type of super hurricane. It was scary and there was no place to hide. Thankfully the storm didn't last very long but extensive damage was everywhere. Power was out for weeks. As I drove home, trees were everywhere. Houses crushed by trees, drive-in demolished, fences, everything. Such strong gusts of wind. So many trees flung around. The pine trees from Wayne to Detroit were all bent in half and the tips were touching the ground. Each tree bent pointing East, the direction the storm traveled. The trees stayed that way for a couple of years before straightening back up. I wish the cameras and recording technology was good then because we would have good pics to show. My neighbor at the time was in his mid 80's and said he had never seen anything like it. He was born around 1900. I do not want to see another one of those!

[vkim...@gmail.com]

I was 14 years old, We lived in a suburb of Detroit, called melvindale.
My father was out in the garage working on my bike, he had a tv in there, I remember the days before we're so hot, heat wave , he came in the house yelling to my mother to get us kids, and get in the basement, there was a tornado coming, I remember looking out the back door as we went down to the basement, the sky was green and blackish, the lightning was green in tint as well, No sooner than we got into our safe place. it hit. worst storm I've ever seen. It was May of 1980 .

[jaxon...@gmail.com]

It was the derecho of July 16, 1980.
I was 2 months and 10 days old. Dad says it got really ugly and green outside and we all went down in the basement. People around here still talk about that storm. One older coworker said she literally saw the bugs fly away from the grass just before the storm hit as her mom grabbed her by her ponytail and yanked her back in the house. I remember seeing what was left of the Ecorse drive in years later before they finally built that Farmer Jack. I've only seen one photo of the storm on Downriver Things. I wonder if anyone else has any.

https://www.downriverthings.com/derecho-green-storm-of-1980.html

[rob.a...@gmail.com]

I will never forget that Split Pea Soup Green storm. I was 17, and had just moved out of my parents' house to downtown Ann Arbor (4th and Madison) with 3 friends of mine from Community High School. I remember one of them waking everyone up that summer morning, I wanna say around 10ish?, and dragging us all outside to show us. We all just stood there, staring at the dark green color, before the actual storm started to hit.
Most amazing weather I'll probably ever see in my life.

[karxprt]

I was at the Ford Engineering and Research Center on the Third Floor of Build 3. That's the center of the four engineering buildings at the time. The building is practically all glass. As the storm came in we all stupidly went to the window at the end of the building. Finally, as transformers on the electric poles were exploding along the road, we concluded we should move away from the windows. None broke, but it was extremely touch and go. When the storm was over, we went to the front side of the building and saw that many of the huge oak trees on that side had been blown down. A oak flattened the car next to my wife-to-be car in the parking lot. Didn't even get scratched. When I want home to Dearborn Heights, my back yard was covered in the remains of a blooming cottonwood tree. It had exploded in the storm. Later I went jogging through the Dearborn neightbood across the street. There were trees, limbs and power lines down all through the area. Had to carefully avoid the sparking power lines because the power had not yet been turned off. No electricity for days. Never knew the green storm was a "derecho" until now.