I Learned A New Word Today! DERECHO

It's always nice to know what comes around and kicks you in the backside - what kicked my backside this past week was a DERECHO.

According to the National Weather Service, a derecho is a band of storms that have winds at least 58 miles per hour along the entire length of the storm which is at least 240 miles long and lasts a minimum of 6 hours. This storm must also have high or rapidly increasing forward speed. There can be winds in excess of 100 mph within the storm causing damage equivalent to a tornado.

Wind speed is not constant and varies along the line of the storm. The stronger winds, called downbursts, often occur in clusters. The rotor-downburst causes damage in a circular pattern. Although the winds are non-tornadic, tornadoes can accompany a derecho. They are difficult to confirm due to the damage caused by straight-line winds. The winds are not simply gusts or bursts of wind, they are sustained.

Derechos usually evolve from a bow echo formation. They are a widespread, long-lived, violent, fast-moving band in the form of a squall line. They blow in the direction of the storm's movement. They are similar to a gust front, except the wind is sustained and they increase in strength behind a front hundreds of miles long. The storm sweeps across a very large area, both wide and long causing extensive damage.

They usually occur from May to August and peak during the end of June into July. Most common in the Ohio Valley, Upper Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes region, they occur during periods of extreme heat, forming along the north side of stationary fronts where the most intense heat and humidity is located.

The term “derecho” was first used by Gustavus Hinrichs in 1888 in paper describing the storms. It was later revived by Robert Johns and William Hirt in 1987. It comes from the Spanish word meaning "straight.”

Having been thru a recent derecho, I believe the correct spelling should be DE-WRECK-OH!