Last Week's Damaging Storm Was A Rare Derecho - So What Is It?
BOSTON (CBS) - In recent years, you've likely become accustomed to several "new to you" weather terms like; bombogenesis, polar vortex and El Nino, La Nina, but I bet there aren't many of you that knew the term "derecho."
No, we aren't just making this stuff up, New England did in fact experience a derecho (deh-REY-cho) on October 7th.
A derecho is essentially a line of thunderstorms which holds together for a very long time (at least 240 miles) while producing widespread damaging, straight-line winds that are persistently greater than 58 mph (with some as high as 75 mph or greater).
This was a rare event for us for several reasons.
First, New England just doesn't get many of these, the last one being back in 1995.
Secondly, they typically occur in the summer when humidity levels are quite high, NOT in October.
The derecho back on October 7th actually started around the Lake Ontario area and made it all the way to Cape Cod (about 300 miles).
This particular derecho was rather borderline by National Weather Service standards, many of these that blow through the Midwest can have winds in excess of 100 mph (remember Iowa earlier this year) and extended for several hundreds of miles long.
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