Oh, Terrific: Land Hurricanes Are a Thing Now

Perhaps you have been wondering why a big chunk of the country has been without power for the last several days? Your answer: we were struck by a land hurricane. Yes, a land hurricane. For some reason, that sounds far more mysterious and menacing than a regular hurricane—sort of like a land shark is to a regular shark. A land hurricane is technically called a derecho, and, according to the National Weather Service, it is basically a huge windstorm accompanied by thunderstorms. They’re powerful like tornadoes, but they don’t twist in circles, instead they push a straight line of destruction though a wide swath of land. They’re nicknamed land hurricanes because they have such massive wind gusts. Only, unlike regular hurricanes, they don’t feed off of the water—they feed off of hot, humid weather over land. As you may have noticed, nearly the entire country is experiencing that exact type of weather as we speak, which explains why the derecho developed over the Midwest and swept all the way to the east coast earlier this weekend—killing at least nine people and leaving somewhere around three million people without electricity. In case you’re wondering what the future is going to look like, here’s a video someone shot when the derecho was plowing through Columbus, Ohio. Looks like it’s time to invest in some lead boots and windproof all of our houses because our new weather reality is pretty terrifying and extremely gusty.

A ‘Land Hurricane’ Strikes States From Midwest To East; New Storms Predicted [NPR]