"The storm has no eye, and its powerful winds come across in a line. That can cause widespread overall damage and smaller pockets of severe damage.
To be classified as a derecho by the National Weather Service, the storms must have wind gusts of 57 mph or greater and wind damage from the storm must span at least 400 miles."
@ickplant Fun fact: derecho has many meanings in spanish. One of them is “straight”. Not in the sense of sexual preference.
More like in the sense of follow directions.
Example: “Si usted camina derecho encontrará los baños”.
Which translates as “If you walk straight, you’ll see the restrooms”.
Source: I’m a native spanish speaker.
That’s probably why they call those storms derecho, because they go straight. Also it gives a justification to learn a new language.
I was guessing that was the case, thank you for confirming!