Yup. Looks like a derecho may have hit the area. However, derechos are actually rare (and thousands of miles wide...GIGANTIC!). What you just experienced was a severe thunderstorm. What makes a derecho different is that they have a long lifespan. In other words, the storm system should be intact and barreling away (although slowly, like I said) in the same form to North Carolina. Looking at radar maps right now, there's almost no trace of any huge storm system, if only small clusters of them. Close but no cigar. Glad you're okay, though.
Without tornado sirens, you'll have to keep an eye on the sky (and on the news) at all times.
guidogodoy wrote:
Damned if we didn't just have another "derecho" today. Carbondale that is shown in the vid below is right above us (and our "local" tv station). Exactly as viewed: hail, MASSIVE rain, lightning strikes all over the place, wind bursts, trees down everywhere. I had to take three different routes to try to get home thanks to flooded roads, downed trees.
Below is a RAIN gully for runoff, not a river. First time I went past it it was overflowing.
One of many trees split in half right in front of my house. Oh great, no functioning tornado warning system either as the company that made the system for the system went out of business.
Vaillant 3.0 wrote:
Good evening, ladies and gents of the Noticeboard.
Those that live in the Midwestern part of the US (and Canada) often have to face not only tornados and hurricanes, but also derecho storms. What is a derecho storm, you may ask? A derecho is a very long, straight line of thunderstorms that develop during this time of the year and contain goodies such as hurricane-like winds, torrential rain, and hail. What makes these kinds of storms interesting is that they tend to be very slow-moving, so they are capable of a good amount of destruction. One example is the kind of destruction that occurs in this video. Don't get too scared!
Informational AND fun! 
