WASHINGTON(7News) — If you lived in the Washington, D.C., area in the summer of 2012, chances are you remember exactly where you were on the evening of June 29. What started as another hot, humid June day quickly turned into one of the most destructive weather events the region has ever experienced.
The storm wasn’t a tornado. It wasn’t a hurricane. It was something many people had never even heard of before—a derecho.
So…what exactly is a derecho?
A derecho (pronounced deh-RAY-cho) is a fast-moving line of powerful thunderstorms that can produce hurricane-force wind gusts over hundreds of miles. In fact, the word comes from the Spanish word for “straight ahead,” referring to the straight-line winds that cause the damage.
Unlike tornadoes, which create narrow paths of destruction with rotating winds, derechos spread damaging winds across a much larger area. Think of it as an enormous wall of severe thunderstorms racing across the landscape.
70% of all derechos occur from May through August.
A storm that crossed half the country
The June 29, 2012, derecho began during the morning in Iowa before rapidly organizing into a massive line of thunderstorms. Fueled by extremely hot, unstable air, the storm kept strengthening as it charged eastward…