TOLEDO, Ohio — Editor's note: The above video originally aired as the storm was moving through on Monday night.
The Storm Prediction Center, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and National Weather Service, has classified the storm that blasted through northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan late Monday night as derecho.
A derecho is a wind storm driven by large clusters of explosive thunderstorms, typically organized into large squall lines with intense bow echos which drive damaging straight-line winds.
These massive storms can be several hundred miles wide, track for up to 12 hours and cover hundreds, if not thousands, of miles.
Most common in the Central Plains and Midwest, our region can experience, on average, up to one derecho per year. The majority of these storms strike in May, June and July, but can happen year-round. Parts of our area were devastated by a derecho on June 29, 2012.
Along with classifying the severe weather that moved through the Toledo region as an official derecho, the National Weather Service also has determined that a macroburst struck east of here.
NWS officials said that in an area stretching from southern Wayne County through central and eastern Holmes County, 80-90 mph winds cut a 15-mile-wide path for 24 miles during the "second wave" of the storms, which hit there around 12:10 a.m. Tuesday.
These straight-line winds -- which gusted up to 94 mph -- caused a macroburst, the weather service determined.
Surveyors who visited the area after the storm found thousands of trees that had been brought down or snapped by the wind. Also, several utility poles had been snapped and at least one building was destroyed, NWS officials said.
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