Six years ago, on Aug. 10, 2020, a massive derecho left a trail of damage from its 100 mph winds in the Chicago area.
The derecho lasted for several hours as it tore across the Midwest from Nebraska across Iowa to parts of Wisconsin and Illinois and then into Indiana and Michigan.
A derecho is a complex of thunderstorms that produces a relatively unbroken swath of wind damage at least 240 miles in length, with wind gusts of at least 58 miles an hour along its path, as defined by the National Weather Service. The 2020 derecho had winds nearly twice the speed required by the NWS…