Today I was oh so close to experiencing the thrill of a derecho.  A derecho is a long lived straight line windstorm as opposed to a tornado which spins.  There are criteria that must be met such as distance travelled, length of the squall line and windspeed.  I'm pretty sure the storm that rolled from Indiana to D.C. today met all of those. 

I was watching it on radar throughout the day and once it got across the mountains of WV, the storm just blew up.  Best bow echo I have ever seen and it just accelerated all the way to the Chesepeake.  Numerous wind damage reports all through northern VA and MD.  Possibly even a tornado in Luray, VA where Kristen and I went canoeing on the Shenandoah River last Friday.  I saw a 64 mph gust at Fort Belvoir.  I'm sure winds were over 70 elsewhere. 

Anyway, I am a little sad because the southern edge of the derecho passed just to my north.  Nothing for me.  There is another line forming to our west right now.  Hopefully the first one didn't stabilize things too much.  I want some good winds.

This spring is the most fun since my freshman year of college (1998).  That was my first real exposure to severe storms and there were plenty that year. 

Our cable got knocked out from last nights storms and a few weeks ago our phone line got knocked out for 5 days!  Totally worth it though.

Any storm reports from OH or PA?  I saw a nasty cell right around Jeffersonville last night.  Probably went right through Xenia.  Do tell.