A powerful windstorm known as a derecho ripped through southeast Texas on Thursday evening, killing eight Houstonians and knocking out power for close to a million customers in Harris County. (As of Monday afternoon, around 200,000 were still without electricity.) With winds gusting up to 75 miles per hour in places, the storm shattered skyscraper windows, toppled trees and fences, and left a trail of destruction in its wake. Not since the 2021 winter storm has Houston seen such devastation. And unlike 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall near Rockport, nearly two hundred miles south, the derecho struck almost without warning. Few meteorologists recognized the warning signs until right before the storm hit, giving residents little time to seek shelter. To understand why the derecho took…
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