Derecho threatens: D.C. area braces for severe thunderstorms, high winds

The Midwest may have dodged the derecho, but the East Coast may not be so lucky.

Weather forecasts for Thursday morning for the Washington, D.C., region — stretching into Philadelphia and the Mid-Atlantic — warn of massive winds and heavy rains. Tornadoes for the area are still a threat, the website weather.com reported.

“This could be the worst weather day of the year,” one Fox News anchor warned on Thursday morning.

Midwestern states were pounded by rainfall. But the worst is leaving that region, and one meteorologist said that “with each hour that does by, [a derecho] is less likely,” Weather.com reported.

A glance at the damage in some states so far: Indiana counties are still under flood watch, but severe thunderstorms are no longer a factor. Almost 33,000 Michigan residents lost power. A Wal-mart roof collapsed in one county in Wisconsin, injuring two. And Illinois just emerged from a series of small tornado sightings, only to face continued airline cancellations and delays. In Chicago, meanwhile, lightning had struck the Willis Tower during a particularly severe thunderstorm Wednesday evening.

Now, states toward the east are bracing. Pennsylvania is under a flood watch. Powerful thunderstorms are expected to roar across the Mid-Atlantic states. Power outages, hail storms and dangerous winds — some forming into tornadoes — are all part and parcel of the coming storm line.

One weather forecaster said as many as one in five Americans would be impacted by the storms, when they finally run their course.