This amateur video, provided by the U.S. Forest Service, shows the ferocity of the July 4, 1999, storm from a cabin in Canada near the Minnesota border. The During the early-morning hours of July 4, 1999, a series of thunderstorms roared across northern Minnesota. In what would become forever known as “Blowdown Storm,” damaging and powerful winds would leave scars on the area some of which are still visible to this day. Photos: July 4, 1999 Blowdown Photos from the Duluth News Tribune archives of the aftermath of the July 4, 1999 blowdown The July 4 derecho — a system of straight-line winds that originated near July 4, 2019 will mark the 20th anniversary of the historic Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) Blowdown event, which occurred over the midday hours of Sunday, July 4, 1999 across far northern Minnesota. MPR’s Bob Kelleher takes a look back on the one year anniversary of BWCA blowdown, and what has happened since. On July 4, 1999, wilderness campers and vacationers in and around Northeast Minnesota's Superior National Forest were startled to see a looming black line of clouds darken the sky. During the early-morning hours of July 4, 1999, a series of thunderstorms formed over portions of North and South Dakota. As the day moved along, the storms grew in strength. Some of the storms formed into a bow echo and began moving across Minnesota with damaging winds. Eventually, the “Boundary Waters Blowdown” would last for July 4, 1999 was not the first time that a blowdown occurred. Back in 1977, a large blowdown happened in central Minnesota and northern Wisconsin. This map was created by Ted Fujita who created the now famous Fujita scale which measures the strength of a tornado based on its damage. Two of the state’s largest wildfires lit up areas of the forest that were affected by the July 4, 1999, blowdown, including the 76,000-acre Ham Lake fire from 2007 and a part of the 93,000-acre Many of us in Cook and Lake County had never heard the word “Derecho” until a massive summer storm knocked down an estimated 25 million trees in the Superior National Forest and a large part of the BWCAW the afternoon of the Fourth of July in 1999. In the early hours of that day, a large thunderstorm developed over the eastern part of North Dakota. By the morning of Sunday, July fourth, forecasters at the National Weather Service in Duluth noticed a strip of weather forming over the Dakotas, headed east-northeast. The system grew. Weather forecasters became alarmed. Most of you know what happened next. The historic July 4 storm that wiped out huge swaths of forest and injured visitors left a long-lasting mark on the BWCA wilderness. The Boundary Waters–Canadian Derecho (also called the Boundary Waters Blowdown) was an international derecho that occurred during the afternoon and evening hours of July 4 and the early morning hours of July 5, 1999. It traveled 1,300 miles (2,092 km) and lasted 22 hours. [1] Twenty years ago on the Fourth of July, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness withstood a storm that transformed the region. The storm, known as a derecho, produced straight-line winds of up Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of the famed Boundary Waters Blowdown. On July 4, 1999 a huge storm packing 90-mile-per-hour winds ripped through the BWCA, uprooting trees, blocking portages, and stranding campers. In all 370,000 acres in the BWCA were affected by the storm. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. Those in the path of the July 4, 1999 Blowdown event knew storm clouds were building, but had no way to anticipate the ferocity of what was coming. Straight line winds cut a path of destruction On July 4, 1999, in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), a bizarre confluence of meteorological events resulted in the most damaging blowdown in the region's history. The Blowdown of July 4th, 1999 by Peter S. Parke and (5:15 a.m. CDT), July 4, 1999. Fig. 2. Track of the July 4, 1999 Derecho across northern Minnesota. That was July of 1998. One year later, the Boundary Waters Blowdown of July 4, 1999, devastated more than 370,000 acres of the one-million-acre wilderness area. To my dismay, Alpine Lake received some of the worst damage. That was 20 years ago this month. July 4 is the 25th anniversary of the Boundary Waters blowdown, when winds up to 100 miles per hour tore through the canoe wilderness. July 6, 1999 file photo, a home on the south shore of
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