Is Another Derecho Coming to the East Coast Thursday?

The massive windstorm that slapped America's east cheek over a distance of 700-plus miles on June 29 is not weather that most sane people want to experience twice. More than 20 dead, many from crushing injuries caused by falling trees; millions in property damage; a week without electric power in Washington, D.C. – derechos are just massive buzzkills.

Thus it was a little unsettling to see the phrase "widespread damaging wind event/derecho" mentioned in a government weather forecast issued Wednesday for Thursday afternoon. The Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center predicted a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms for a stretch of land from the Ohio Valley to the upper Mid-Atlantic to lower New England. The forecasters saw all-powerful winds as the major threat, although the National Weather Service did identify a "tornado risk in a narrow corridor from parts of New York State to southern New England."