This is supposed to be a column about water, right? So what does "derecho" have to do with water? In Spanish, el derecho refers to a moral principle or custom, in other words, a right. La derecha refers to something on the right, like a right hand. So what does something that means right have to do with water? Think back to the night of June 29. Remember the rain, the lightning and thunder, and especially the wind that caused damage and power loss for a week or more? You may not have known it at the time but you experienced a rare storm that climatologists call a derecho.

So what is a derecho anyway and how could a term that means right in Spanish possibly refer to a storm? Another definition of derecho in Spanish is "direct" or "straight". Think straight wind. Now does it begin to make more sense?

So how did derecho come to refer to a storm? In 1888, a physics professor from the University of Iowa was searching for a term to describe high velocity straight winds that were thunderstorm induced. He had experienced storms that produced damage similar to that produced by tornadoes but instead of whirling, the wind damage was from one direction in a relatively straight line. The physicist named this type of storm "derecho" and the name is still used to this day.

A derecho is a huge storm. To be called a derecho, a storm must be about 250 miles wide and must include straight wind gusts of 58 miles an hour or greater. Some of the most intense derechos occur during summer heat waves. Remember those eight days in June with temperatures over 100 degrees? We might have experienced the granddaddy of all derechos on June 29. The fast moving storm that began about noon in the Chicago area, was much more than 250 miles wide when it passed through our area, extending from central North Carolina to New Jersey.

Wind? Oh yeah. Wind gusts of nearly 80 miles an hour were measured in many locations. Thunder and lightning? Uh huh. It seemed almost constant during the 30-45 minutes the storm was in our area. Rain? That too, although not as much as one might have expected. Damage? Most certainly. I lost one tree and part of another but I was lucky - never lost power, not for a minute, thanks to the buried power lines in my neighborhood. So, while I was clearing tree debris, about 3 million customers who did lose power for up to 10 days were cussing Pepco and Dominion.

So was this derecho an aberration or can we expect them to occur more frequently? I can't answer that. I do believe that climate change is occurring and we can expect more unusual weather in the future.

Switching gears, you may recall my last column was about water and music. I promised to list more water songs in subsequent columns. Here are some Country-Western water songs: Big River -Johnny Cash; Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain-Willie Nelson; Raining on Sunday-Keith Urban; Cool Water-Sons of the Pioneers; The Thunder Rolls-Garth Brooks.