VIDEO: What made yesterday’s wind storm a ‘derecho’
What makes a "derecho"?
Monday's historic wind event brought damage to several major cities from Iowa through north-central Illinois. This storm is referred to as a squall line. You may also here bow echo, or mesoscale convective system. What made this storm a derecho was it's power.
The word derecho comes from the spanish word for "straight". These storms produce straight-line wind damage, but in order to be given the derecho tag, the damage MUST span a path of at least 250 miles.
Yesterday's wind event traversed over 750 miles in a mere 14 hours. That's an average speed of 55 mph! The National Weather Service received over 700 severe wind reports as a result of this storm system too.
The highest wind gusts were upwards of 110 miles per hour. That's similar to an EF-2 tornado or Category 2 hurricane.
A historic weather event
At one point yesterday, the entire complex of storms stretched over 1000 miles-- from the Great Lakes to northern Oklahoma. Wind reports from Iowa through north central Illinois were anywhere from 80-110 miles per hour.
This storm also produced a breathtaking amount of lightning. The entire complex recorded between 85,000 to 125,000 lightning strikes. That's enough to power over 10,000 house holds with electricity for a year straight!
Needless to say, this is an event the Midwest won't soon forget.
-Luke
