BUFFALO, N.Y. — Severe weather is incredibly common in the United States. The country’s large, open landmass provides a perfect battleground for different air masses to clash and bring all of the major storm ingredients together.
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But every so often, a round of particularly severe weather gets ignited by a little something extra. The result is a fast-moving cluster of storms with intense wind and rain that leaves a trail of destruction hundreds of miles wide.
These hurricane-like storm complexes are called derechos.
Very specific criteria needs to be met in order for a severe weather event to be called a derecho. First, the storm must cover at least 250 miles. There must also be widespread severe wind reports of at least 58 mph. Oftentimes there are embedded gusts over 70 mph.
That’s exactly what was observed in the northern Plains and Midwest last Monday. More than 500 wind damage reports came in from eastern Nebraska to southern Ohio over a 14 hour period. Entire cornfields were flattened. One parking lot in Iowa was full of cars with blown-out windows. The winds caused tens of thousands of power outages and resulted in one death.
Even though we know what makes a thunderstorm tick, it’s not clear what exactly sets off a derecho. They do often form in the summertime around the edge of a large ridge of heat and high pressure.
Despite the buzzword-ish sound to the name, derechos are not new or invented for social media. The term was originally coined in the late 1800s and has been in regular use in the weather community since the 1980s, when advanced satellite and radar technology allowed us to better identify and track them.
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New episodes of Heather’s Weather Whys are posted to the WGRZ YouTube channel every Wednesday evening. You can also watch on Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. on Channel 2 News.
If you have a weather question for Heather to answer, send it to her at heather.waldman@wgrz.com or connect with her on Facebook or Twitter.
