Derecho in progress

A derecho is currently going through the Unites States. It started this morning in northern Oklahoma and, as I write this, is going through northern Mississippi and western Tennessee.

The SPC issued a PDS severe thunderstorm watch (link will be invalid after 2009) for this--a rather rare event. In the wording of the watch they mention winds to 105 mph.

If you go to the SPC severe weather reports page for today, you can clearly see the swath of severe weather caused by this derecho.

Here's a current base reflectivity image of the derecho (courtesy CoD).


And the associated base velocity image.



This storm will, I'm sure, be the subject of many studies in the future.