While visiting friends in Maryland, I asked about why a particular tree in their yard was cut down to a stump. I hadn't remembered seeing it like that when I visited last year. What happened?
They explained that a massive wind storm had swept through this part of Maryland last year just after I'd visited and had destroyed the tree.
"That's odd," I thought, "I don't remember any tornados in Maryland in 2012... what happened?"
Indeed. What happened?
I was able to find out after just a few moments of research. It was a specific kind of storm that wreaked widespread devastation throughout Maryland. And this leads to today's challenges; there's an easy form, and a more challenging question.
1. What kind of storm destroyed my friend's tree in Maryland last year? (There's a very specific term for this weather event. What's that term?)
More challenging:
2. Can you find the original paper that gave the name to this kind of storm? (You should be able to actually find and read the original text. Accept no substitutes!)As always, please let us know HOW you found the answer(s), and about how long it took you to find it.
Search on!
------
(Thanks to Ben B for the idea!)
(Footnote: I'll be traveling all day tomorrowand might not be able to write up the answeruntil Friday. Don't panic, I'll be back.)
This one seemed too easy which made me doubt myself.
ReplyDeleteI starting typing in my search [2012 maryland storm] Google started auto-populating my query with [june 29 2012 maryland storm]. So, I used that and the first hit was a Wikipedia article on a June 2012 storm in Maryland. The article explains that the storm is called a 'derecho' which is a fast-moving thunderstorm.
Another search [maryland 2012 derecho] yields tons of other links verifying that this is the answer.
For the second part, within the Wiki article, I clicked on 'derecho' and read this bit:
Derecho comes from the Spanish word in adjective or adverb forms for "straight" (adv, adj. "direct"), in contrast with a tornado which is a "twisted" wind.[1] 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.
Okay, so now I have something specific to look for.
I went to Google Books, typed in "The American Meteorology Journal" and limited my search to 1888. Bingo! Then did a search from within the book for 'derecho' and found a history of it beginning on page 306 (link: http://books.google.com/books?id=ScMEAAAAYAAJ&vq=derecho&pg=PA307#v=snippet&q=derecho&f=false)
So there we have it. The first part took me a minute. The second part about 5 minutes.
1. Derecho - A derecho (pronounced similar to "deh-REY-cho") is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms.
ReplyDelete2. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dvn/hinrichs/amj_hinrichs.pdf
To find the term: Google search [Maryland storm 2012] => http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/29/virginia-dc-derecho-storm_n_1639274.html
To find the original paper: follow derecho-link in previous article => http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/derechofacts.htm => http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dvn/?n=hinrichs containing: The First Formal Publication using the Term Derecho [Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs, 1888: Tornadoes and Derechos, American Meteorological Journal, pp. 306-317 and 341-349]
=> http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dvn/hinrichs/amj_hinrichs.pdf
Found everything in less than 2 minutes.
Most of this I know because I too live in Maryland and experienced the storm.
ReplyDelete1) It's called a "derecho", and is known for being a storm which moves with strong winds in a straight-ish line. [personal knowledge AFTER the storm]
2) The term originally showed up in the American Meteorological Journal, in a paper by Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs entitled "Tornadoes and Derechos" (which can be found here: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dvn/hinrichs/amj_hinrichs.pdf). Found this by going to the Wikipedia page for "derecho", and looking at the section on etymology (which, I'm pleased to say, exists), which took me to the NOAA page.
All in all, about a minute. But I cheated a little by "being there".
No search necessary since I lived through it.
ReplyDeleteAnswer 1 - Derecho
Searching for [ derecho ] took me to the Wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derecho which credited the Gustavus Hinrichs to first describing a storm with straight winds as a derecho in an issue of "American Meteorological Journal" in 1888.
Trying to find a copy was a bit tougher. I couldn't seem to find it searching the The Library of the Universities of Iowa. I tried Google Scholar and couldn't find it.
Searching Google Books for [ Gustavus Detlef Hinrichs derecho ] got me a book or pamphlet titled "Tornadoes and Derechos" but that turned out to be a reprint without a preview.
I went back to trying to find a copy of the American Meteorological Journal from 1888.
No luck pinning it down to things published in 1888 I broadened out to 19th century and found the Journal published in 1889.
In that journal I found his article beginning on page 306.
Answer 2
http://books.google.com/books?id=enI2AQAAMAAJ&dq=%22American%20meteorological%20journal%22&pg=PA306#v=onepage&q=derecho&f=false
Derecho
ReplyDeleteTornadoes and Derechos by Gustaves Hinrichs in the Novemeber 1888 American Meterological Journal
Took about 25 min. Knew that it was a derecho to start with and then from there it was just trying to find the exact name of the paper via other more recent papers and history of derechos. At one point I did capture the entire selection of Monthly Weather Reviews in 1888 from the old Signal Service from NOAA and search for Hinrichs and Derecho. Hinrichs worked, but that's because he was the contributor from Iowa, but he did not mention Derechos in those snippets.
Google: [Maryland Windstorm]
ReplyDeleteHeaders and dates of the first three results:
Powerful Wind Storm, Scorching Heat Hit Eastern United States - US ... (date Jul 2, 2012)
Major wind storm hits Maryland, June 29, 2012, Trees and branches ...
Maryland wind storm costs - Baltimore Sun (date Jul 5, 2012)
This seemed to confirm that the windstorm was in late June/early July 2012.
The fifth result was:
June 2012 North American derecho - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Which answers #1: Derecho
Followed the link to the Wikipedia article, and from there followed a link to the Wikipedia article for Derecho. Section 1, Etymology, says:
"Derecho comes from the Spanish word in adjective or adverb forms for "straight" (adv, adj. "direct"), in contrast with a tornado which is a "twisted" wind.[1] 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."
There's the author and the journal. But you challenged us to find the original paper.
The footnote for the paper in the Wikipedia article links to a biographical article on Hinrichs, not the paper.
scholar.google.com: [hinrichs "American Meteorological Journal"]
First result:
[CITATION] Tornadoes and derechos
GD Hinrichs - 1888
(not the actual paper)
Google: ["tornadoes and derechos" hinrichs]
First result:
Tornadoes and Derechos
To answer Question #2: Yes, I can.
This one was actually within the realm of my abilities.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Googled "freak storm Maryland", got this report on the June "derecho": http://elkridge.patch.com/articles/derecho-report-bge-surprised-by-freak-storm-2a222bed
Googled "derecho storm" and got the wikipedia entry on derecho: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derecho
In the text of that entry, I saw: 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.[2]
The footnote pointed to this article:
A Brief History of Gustavus Hinrichs, Discoverer of the DERECHO
by Ray Wolf http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dvn/?n=hinrichs
That page had a link:
The Original Publication Describing a Derecho
Iowa Weather Bulletin Volume 1 Number 1, Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs, Iowa City, Iowa 1878
Which led to this: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dvn/hinrichs/hinrichs_1878.pdf
Handwritten!
Fun!
--dave
I searched for
ReplyDelete[maryland windstorm 2012]
The first result was a US News and World Report article titled "Powerful Wind Storm, Scorching Heat Hit Eastern United States." The article mentions that the windstorm was known as a "derecho."
I googled
[derecho]
The third result was a NOAA page about derechos: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/derechofacts.htm
The introduction shows a link to a figure published in the American Meteorological Journal in 1888. It was a simple thing to then find the Google Book version of the AMJ and find the original article: "Tornadoes and Derechoes," by Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs. On page 307 he writes "...I had noticed some of the peculiarities of the storm which I now propose to call Derecho."
I neglected to mention the Wikipedia article. After finding the NOAA site, I wandered back to my search for [derecho] to double check my answer. I'd skipped over Wikipedia, so I looked up the article about derechos. There is a link to the original handwritten 1877 report. However, the word "derecho" does not appear in it. In fact, the Wikipedia article says as much: "The word was first used in the American Meteorological Journal in 1888." So, again, searching Google Books for
ReplyDelete[American Meteorological Journal]
brings up several volumes, and from there it's a simple task to find which one is from 1888 (vol. 5!).
As soon as I looked at the tree I thought "wind shear" because I lived through a similar storm. I googled Maryland wind shear 2012 and found news stories which included the term derecho for the type of storm. Searching on that term led me to gustavus hinrichs who proposed the term in an article in the American Meteorological Journal in 1888. I presume that is available in Google books, but I don't have time to search anymore today.
ReplyDeletejust one search: [maryland 2012 storm broke trees]
ReplyDeleteI found "derecho" was the name and just following a couple of links I found that
Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs coined the term in a paper published on the American Meteorological Journal in 1888. But the original paper is Iowa Weather Bulletin Volume 1 Number 1, Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs, Iowa City, Iowa 1878 and you can read it here: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dvn/hinrichs/hinrichs_1878.pdf
1 minute and 33 seconds
saluti!
[Maryland storm 2012] produced many hits and the term "derecho" 30 seconds
ReplyDeleteThe ever reliable Huffington Post has a link to http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/derechofacts.htm which tells us everything there is to know about derechos including the first publication and date: American Meteorological Journal 1888
[American Meteorological Journal 1888] leads to BOOKS which has The American Meteorological Journal, Volume 5 (Google eBook) 1888 and the article starts on page 306 another 30 seconds
So, a satisfying 1 minute.
I had looked this up last year but forgotten most it already !
Another curious Challenge
jon
Good day, Dr. Russell, fellow SearchResearchers
ReplyDeleteSearched:
[Maryland 2012 tree falls]
Found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_2012_North_American_derecho to find: June 2012 North American derecho June 29-30, 2012
[derecho 2012 maryland] in news
http://tdworld.com/overhead-distribution/public-service-commission-orders-utilities-improve-reliability-and-communicati
Derecho storm.
http://firechief.com/codes-amp-standards/maryland-legislature-moves-safeguard-building-codes Straight-line derecho.
["straight-line derecho" storm] in books
to find: Described by Hiurichs. Books from 1888 to 1890
[derecho storm Hiurichs] to find: http://wrt.stparchive.com/Archive/WRT/WRT07182012p06.php
"Derecho" was first coined by Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs, a proffesor at the University of Iowa, in a paper published in the American Meteorological Journal in 1888.
[American Meteorological Journal intext:Hinrichs] to find:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dvn/?n=hinrichs and there the Original publication describing Derecho: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dvn/hinrichs/hinrichs_1878.pdf
Answers
1. What kind of storm destroyed my friend's tree in Maryland last year? (There's a very specific term for this weather event. What's that term?)
Straight-line Derecho.
2. Can you find the original paper that gave the name to this kind of storm? (You should be able to actually find and read the original text. Accept no substitutes!)
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dvn/hinrichs/hinrichs_1878.pdf
First did google search on windstorm maryland 2012 and found many results which described the storm as a derecho. Then did a search on derecho history and got to this result http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/derechofacts.htm which gave me the information that the term was coined by Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs, a physics professor at the University of Iowa, in a paper published in the American Meteorological Journal in 1888. Then did a search in google books for "American Meteorological Journal" 1888 hinrichs and got the result that it was in Vol 5 of the journal starting on pg. 325. Found that the title of the article was Tornados and Dorechos. So did a search in Google books for "American Meteorological Journal" "tornadoes and derechos" and got to the exact article: http://books.google.com/books?id=enI2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA385&dq=%22american+meteorological+journal%22+%22tornadoes+and+derechos%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2GmKUYHmJ4bp0gHEzIHIDw&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22american%20meteorological%20journal%22%20%22tornadoes%20and%20derechos%22&f=false
ReplyDeleteTo get the first answer took about 1 min. The second part took about 20 mins. I knew it was in vol 5 of the journal but for some reason had a hard time getting vol 5 - got every other vol but. Once I got the name of the article Vol 5 came right up.
I actually started this search on BBC News website with [storm Maryland] on the basis that it would be reported if unusual.
ReplyDeleteThis gave me results from past 2 years - the top were about Hurricane Sandy but 4th result were results from July 2012.
I read the article and about half way down the storm is called a derecho.
I [define:derecho] which gives me a dictionary definition and 2 nd link to Wikipedia which tells me that Gustavus Hinrichs coined the term in late 19th century.
The Wikipedia links from the article lead me to the National Weather Service (US) and an article about Hinrichs including the scanned full text of 2 papers he originally wrote about the phenomenon.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dvn/?n=hinrichs
I also tried to double check for American Meteorological Journal in Google books but couldn't find it. Is there a way to find a journal on there and drill down by date? I thought there was an A-Z list of journals but couldn't find it.
Took about 15 mins but got sidetracked by Google books.
I somewhat knew the answer to the first, due to my travels last summer, so my initial searches were informed searches.
ReplyDelete[linear thunderstorms] returned http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squall_line as the second result. The term was familiar, but not exactly what I was looking for, though the description matched the phenomenon. But further down was the term I was looking for, Derecho, with a link to the main Wikipedia article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derecho
The Wikipedia Derecho page included a section on etymology which noted that the word was first used by Gustavus Detlef Hinrichs in the American Meteorological Journal in 1988. From Hinrichs’ own Wikipedia page it became apparent that finding his meteorological work online might be difficult because he was such an accomplished chemist (one of the discoverers of the periodic laws).
A NOAA page linked on the Hinrich’s Wikipedia page (http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dvn/?n=hinrichs ) contained a history of Dr. Hinrich’s publications withlinks to pdfs of the original publications, including a link to Hinrich’s first description of the Derechno/squall line phenomenon in the (handwritten!) 1878 Iowa Weather Bulletin (Vol. 1, No. 1) (http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dvn/hinrichs/hinrichs_1878.pdf ) and a link to pdf of pages 306 to 317 and 341 to 349 of the 1888 American Meteorological Journal (http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dvn/hinrichs/amj_hinrichs.pdf ) wherein Hinrich’s first used the term Derecho to describe a straight-line storm with sustained high winds, distinguishing it from a Tornado, or turning/circular storm with sustained high winds.
What type of storm hit Maryland and find original paper that gave it the name.
ReplyDeleteQuery[wunderground.com] I have used this in the past to search weather related issues.
http://www.wunderground.com/resources/severe/severe_storms.asp
Supercell thunderstorms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercell
Types of Supercell Storms-
Mesocyclone http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesocyclone
Waterspout http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterspout
Derecho http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derecho
But for the purpose of this challenge I anticipate I need to know the term Supercell since we want to see who and when the term was identified.
STORM DETAILS
Wunderground History Data Jan 1 2012-Dec 31 2012 Baltimore Maryland
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KBWI/2012/1/1/CustomHistory.html?dayend=31&monthend=12&yearend=2012&req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA
June 1, 2012 "Tornado" most severe weather indicated in 2012. Several thunderstorms with concentration in May-Sept.
http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#story/bal-wx-severe-thunderstorms-could-disrupt-evening-commute-20120601/ - references storm as "tornado warnings" which may or not be the same storm.
Query [maryland june 1, 2012]
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/ctp/features/2012/06_01/
Articles refers to tornados, microburst, gustnado, severe thunderstorm, supercells, and squalls.
Google>Scholar>supercells
American Meterological Society Online Journal by Lemon and Bosgroves -Sept 1979 * references Supercell back to Browning 1964*.
Query[Scholar] [browning supercells] 1961-1962-1963 papers- no reference found specifically to "supercell"
Sept 1979 http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0493%281979%29107%3C1184%3ASTEAMS%3E2.0.CO%3B2 pdf available.
1964 Paper Browning http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0469%281964%29021%3C0634%3AAAPTWS%3E2.0.CO%3B2 pdf available *using reference on right panel of website otherwise couldn't access"*
Browning refers in above document to "SR storms" which identified certain wind behavior during severe thunderstorms. He mentions previous studies of his own and others on page 1 along with the term "supercells" referring to these as a class of storms. His October 1963 paper describes this type of storm but not the term.
http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=browning+supercell+1961&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=1%2C5
You can see from this webpage scholar search that others papers cite the Browning 1964 paper as the identifying the term "supercell" which is confirmation.
Time 90 minutes
After reading others responses I can see that the June 29th better fits this challenge. I have never heard of this term "derecha" and I skipped over it in my search. I am surprised that the weather report data on Wunderground never hinted at this event. I have since found a lot of info on this type of storm at
Deletehttp://www.erh.noaa.gov/lwx/events/svrwx_20120629/. Sometimes its best to just keep it simple. Another lesson learned. I followed others search and enjoyed finding the original document. The handwritten document was hard to read but I couldn't find any reference to derecha.
I knew it was a Derecho. I'm in Annapolis, MD and it hit us hard. Started working on question two by going to google scholar. Searched for the term, limited to english results and sorted by year. Chose a recent document (http://www.orbit.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/documents/seminardocs/2013/Wilson20130430.pdf) and checked out the references. The earliest source that uses the term Derechos was from from 1987: Johns, R.H., and W. D. Hirt, 1987: Derechos: Widespread convectively induced windstorms. Wea. Forecasting, 2, 32-49. Returned to scholar and searched for the 1987 citation, clicked on related and found an 1888 (!) citation for "Tornadoes and Derechos" by GD Hinrichs. Repeated the same technique by putting this citation back into scholar search and looking at related hits. Only returned a few and none were earlier than 1888. Tested again by putting the 1888 citation in regular google search--second hit was "Gustavus Hinrichs - Discoverer of the DERECHO NWS DVN" from NOAA (http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dvn/?n=hinrichs) I think this is is the answer--but I need to find the original text for the Hinrichs article…
ReplyDeleteTo find the full text of the Hinrichs article, I looked back at the google hits from searching for the citation. Nothing looked like the actual article. I streamlined the search terms (removing the initials and the year) and limited to pdf filetype: "Tornadoes and derechos Hinrichs file:.pdf" Top result from NOAA had a scan of the article. Realizing that this this was from the same source as the confirming article above, I went back and took a second look--all of the references to earlier writings were provided at the bottom of the NOAA article! Sometimes it pays to actually read (or even scan) something a bit before jumping off for more searching!
I searched for [maryland storm 2012], which turned up several promising links. The first one - a wikipedia link to "June 2012 North American derecho" - gave me the kind of storm (derecho), and the derecho link gave the origin of the word ("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."). The citation for that links to "A Brief History of Gustavus Hinrichs, Discoverer of the DERECHO", which has a scan of Hinrichs' original 1888 article ("Tornadoes and Derechoes", American meteorological journal, pp. 306-317 and 341-349).
ReplyDeleteSearch time: ~2 minutes
Rather straightforward really this one only took 2 minutes ;)
ReplyDeleteI googled "bizarre storm maryland trees" and struck gold in the first hit, an article from the Huffington Post describing the freak storm called a derecho.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/29/virginia-dc-derecho-storm_n_1639274.html
Through a link further down this article and also linked from the Wikipedia article on this weather phenomenon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derecho#cite_note-2) I found this page (http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dvn/?n=hinrichs) on Gustavus Detlef Hinrichs, the Danish born meteorologist who first came up with the name Derecho.
Towards the bottom of that page you can find two links to relevant PDFs:
The very first publication ever to describe a Derecho (http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dvn/hinrichs/hinrichs_1878.pdf)
Iowa Weather Bulletin Volume 1 Number 1, Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs, Iowa City, Iowa 1878
and finally
The first formal publication using the term Derecho (http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dvn/hinrichs/amj_hinrichs.pdf)
Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs, 1888: Tornadoes and Derechos, American Meteorological Journal, pp. 306-317 and 341-349.
This was an easy one. The query [maryland storm 2012] rapidly provided the name of the storm type, "derecho." Several of the articles provided a direct link to the NOAA National Weather Service page on derechos, so I didn't even have to search for that (I love the NOAA sites!) This, in turn, gave me a direct link to the NWS biography of discoverer Gustavus Hinrichs, which provided a PDF of the original handwritten article as submitted [http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dvn/hinrichs/hinrichs_1878.pdf]. A quicke search on Google Books also provided the published "Tornadoes and Derechos" by Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs in The American Meteorological Journal, Vol. 5, Jan. 1888 [https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ScMEAAAAYAAJ&rdid=book-ScMEAAAAYAAJ&rdot=1].
ReplyDeleteI re-read the "hand written" 1877 edition of the Iowa Weather Bulletin Vol 1 number 1 to check if "derecho" was mentioned there. As several commenters have noted the term is not used.
ReplyDeleteWhat I did find curious was that this would have been "hand written" What was it used for ? His own notes ? Press release ? I find that it is not hand written at all but is mass produced.
GH notes at the bottom of page 1 that it was made using an Electric Pen and Duplicating Press. This turns out be somewhat similar to a tattoo needle which punched 50 holes per second in a sheet of paper. This was high tech stuff just on the market from Mr Edison. http://electricpen.org/ This produced a stencil. The stencil was then set in a press with blank paper under it and ink on top which was squeezed through the perforations. Mr E said that a stencil could be good for 5000 copies.
So, this could be used for many purposes at once.
jon
Great Blog keep going
ReplyDelete