The DC area got hit with a bad line of thunderstorms, knocking out power to about 2M folks and doing a number on this weekend's golf tournament. Both the BBC and ESPN pieces mentioned a new word to me-derecho.
Here's an interesting 2006 piece on that style of storm; check out the video on that page for a quick primer-
Derechos are elongated, straight-lined windstorms that often have bands of rapidly moving thunderstorms associated with it. These little-known atmospheric phenomena often stretch for hundred of miles and cause multiple tornadoes. Meteorologists usually issue a severe thunderstorm watch when they see an approaching derecho.
If this Wikiepedia list of derechos is any indication, we get a few of those each year.
I've never seen or heard that used before; I'm not a meteorologist, but I picked up quite a bit and was surprised that this one showed up on my radar for the first time today.
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