This derecho is one for the history books. Prior similar events have raked similar portions of the Midwest. Two examples are,
1980
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/casepages/jul4-51980page.htm, and
1998
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/casepages/may30-311998page.htm.
Here is the NOAA main page on derechos,
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/derechofacts.htm#otherderechos, and you can see that most of the country east of the Rockies has been victimized and that July is by far the commonest month for them. We're getting an early start this year.
One derecho that NOAA doesn't comment on is the only one I've endured, and it was back in 1993(
http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/full/10.1175/1520-0434%281997%29012%3C0678%3ATAJNDA%3E2.0.CO%3B2. My old Heath ID-5001 recorded a gust of over 120 mph as the derecho passed. I was standing in my great room when the big gust hit, and the suction caused some crackling sounds in the roof overhead but no damage to my home. The Heath windspeed sensor uses a spinning plastic wheel painted with black strips that interrupts a continuously burning IR LED whose emissions are monitored by another solid state sensor opposite it. This system, while power intensive, gives quite reliable instantaneous readings in contrast to the Davis wireless technology I now use. The next morning I tried to jog along one of my usual neighborhood courses, and I had to take many detours around fallen limbs and trees on sidewalks and streets. There was some local news speculation that a tornado occurred, but all of the downed trees, billboards, and powerlines pointed east. There was no evidence of vertical vortices in the damage I later observed along I-80 all the way to Kearney.
Those who directly experienced yesterday's event will remember it for the rest of their lives, and those adversely affected have my sympathy.
