(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Derechos: Be Very Afraid [1] ['Chitown Kev', 'Thom Hartmann', 'Belinda Ridgewood', 'Bill In Portland Maine'] Date: 2026-08-06 You probably feel like you’ve heard about rain bombs more and more lately. You have, and there’s a reason for that. I wonder if you can guess what it is? Here’s a matryoshka doll of incrementally worsening badness, all weather-related and climate change-fueled. This is a short, simple post about a weather phenomenon that has actually been keeping me up at night. Not a lot of waffle. Not a lot of philosophical rambling. Just a quick explainer about something scary that I intend to gussy up with a cutesy metaphor. Let’s start with heavy precipitation in a warming atmosphere. This is the big, chubby, cheerful outer doll in our matryoshka: a basic building block of the larger, deadlier, and more extreme weather events that are being fueled by our warming atmosphere. Simply put, warmer air holds more moisture. This causes stronger storm updrafts, more violent storms, and heavier and more frequent flooding. This is climate change 101. Open that outer doll, and inside is the next one: we’ll call it the Rain Bomb Doll. Here are a few headlines to give you a flavor. Southeast Texas faces rain bomb threat Australia: millions warned of imminent rain bomb Wales: rain bomb predicted to cover Wales, summer 2025 A rain bomb – also known as a downburst or a microburst – is a highly localized system that can cause devastating amounts of damage. While they are not uncommon, the addition of CO2 and heat to the atmosphere will prime it for more and more violent microbursts as we move further into the climate emergency. Rain bomb Open source use for all Wikimedia Commons Please note that the fuzzy gray ball in the center of the photo above is not a thumb smudge on the camera lens. It is a concentrated burst – a bomb, if you will – of heavy, heavy, drenching rain. The kind of rain that, if you are stuck out in it, makes you turn your face down in panic because you’re afraid you’re going to start inhaling water. I am neither a meteorologist nor any type of book learnin’ scientician, so I will let the US National Weather Service describe what’s going on. A microburst is a localized column of sinking air (downdraft) within a thunderstorm and is usually less than or equal to 2.5 miles in diameter. Microbursts can cause extensive damage at the surface, and in some instances, can be life-threatening. There are two primary types of microbursts: 1) wet microbursts and 2) dry microbursts. Wet microbursts are accompanied by significant precipitation and are common in the Southeast during the summer months. It all starts with the development of a thunderstorm and the water droplets/hailstones being suspended within the updraft. Sometimes an updraft is so strong it suspends large amounts of these droplets and hailstones in the upper portions of the thunderstorm. There are many factors that can lead to evaporational cooling (sinking air) and therefore weakening of the updraft. Once this occurs, it is no longer capable of holding the large core of rain/hail up in the thunderstorm. As a result, the core plummets to the ground. As it hits the ground it spreads out in all directions. The location in which the microburst first hits the ground experiences the highest winds and greatest damage. Wind speeds in microbursts can reach up to 100 mph or even higher, which is equivalent to an EF-1 tornado! Winds this high can cause major damage to homes and other structures and level hundreds of trees. And inside the Rain Bomb Doll lurks our innermost doll: the malevolent and terrifying Derecho Doll. A derecho is a widespread, long-lived complex of severe thunderstorms. (The word comes from the Spanish and means ”straight ahead,” in reference to the powerful, straight-line winds that can rival tornados in their devastating power.) To be classified as a derecho, this complex must extend over 240 miles and produce a continuous path of damage extending along that front, with wind gusts of 58 mph or greater. The large complex of severe thunderstorms pushes a massive, continuous “gust front” across the land. Within the massive storm line there are multiple overlapping microbursts and downburst clusters that continually fuel the forward momentum of the system. Derechos can last for HOURS. The damage they can inflict is mindboggling – the cumulative power and punishment of many, many individual rain bombs coalesced into one violent, chaotic, terrifying force of nature pummeling houses and cars and boats and stores and gardens and chicken coops and hog lagoons and schools and parking garages and mini malls and gas stations without mercy. In a piece in 2022 under the characteristically mealy-mouthed headline “Hints of a derecho-climate change link, ten years after 2012 storm” even the Washington Post stopped equivocating long enough to say something declarative and simple about derechos: Climate change fuels more frequent and intense derechos by supercharging the atmospheric conditions required to trigger these large-scale, straight-line windstorms. Derechos are, in a word, dreadful. Just as we often forget that “awesome” means to inspire awe, we also forget that the word “dreadful” means something that causes dread – that is terrifying and induces fear. Imagine the fury of a line of rain bombs barrelling down on your house, your neighborhood, your son’s school, your mom’s nursing home, your town. A rain bomb is already enough to uproot trees and down power lines, produce flash floods, and cause local infrastructure to fail. A derecho is that, and more and more and more, over a front that stretches for more than 200 miles. To qualify as a derecho, winds must reach 58 mph – but they can get over 100 mph which is, as the National Weather Service says, the speed of a Category 1 hurricane. How can you outrun it? Outdrive it? Where will you go? How will you get there? Emissions are rising. We’re consuming fossil fuel as if there’s no tomorrow. Consumerism in the western world continues unabated, belching not just ecosystem destroying pollution but ever more CO2 and other greenhouse gases. The “green revolution” was mostly greenwashing and political happy talk, and anyway, it isn’t happening. Temperatures continue to mount on our beautiful, shimmering, celestial blue globe. Our life-giving atmosphere gets hotter and angrier and more violent. Heatwaves. Wildfires. Flooding. Hurricanes. Sea level rise. Drought. Derechos. I’m not in the habit of fear mongering, but this phenomenon does seem like something to be afraid of. Very afraid. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/8/6/800080409/community/derechos-be-very-afraid/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/