Hurricane strength winds tore across the Midwest Monday morning. They damaged property and left over half a million homes without power.
The National Weather Service classified it as a derecho. Winds reached as high as 100 mph across parts of Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin.
That's the same wind speed as a major hurricane. And it likely caused more widespread damage than a tornado.
A derecho isn't quite the same thing as a hurricane or a tornado. It has no eye, and it doesn't rotate. But its straight-line winds tend to impact larger areas than some powerful storms, and it can hover in one place a lot longer.
Derechoes happen about once a year in the Midwest. One expert from the National Weather Service compared this one to the 2009 Super Derecho, which covered more than 1,000 miles in 24 hours and caused $500 million in damage.
