Meteorologist Brian Davis Explains Derecho Storm - WTRF 7 News Sports Weather - Wheeling Steubenville

The National Weather Service has classified Friday's catastrophic storm as a derecho. The storms are described as a long, strong line with very strong winds.     

Many Emergency Management officials are calling it one of the worst outbreaks the Ohio Valley has seen in years.

We asked Meteorologist Brian Davis to break down the explanation of the classification of the storm.

"A derecho, as you can see, takes up a large area. This is a path, as it made its way past parts of the Tennessee Valley and the central United States. And the paths can be quite extensive, in some cases going one thousand miles, or so. They cover a large, elongated area. They are formed by divergence in the upper levels and fast moving winds. When those winds begin to spread out in the upper levels, they create and uplift in the surface, and that's initially what gets those storms going. So you get those long lines of storms and they are known as derechos," Davis said.