A powerful band of severe storms that ripped through central Pennsylvania Tuesday evening reached a rare level of intensity, experts say.
The storm, which left tens of thousands in Centre County still without power Wednesday morning, was classified by AccuWeather as a derecho. They are usually characterized as fast-moving, long-lived and rare windstorms that are highly destructive.
“These storms had a lot of bite to them,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tom Kines told the Centre Daily Times. “It wasn’t just here, but also all across Ohio, western Pennsylvania and on into more of the commonwealth. There was a lot of damage caused by these storms, and they obviously still had a lot of punch as they moved through State College.”
Unlike tornadoes, derechos — whose name translates to “right” or “straight” in Spanish — usually produce damage directed in one direction along a relatively straight line, the National Weather Service says. The agency defines derechos as windstorms with a damage swath extending 240 miles and wind gusts exceeding at least 58 mph along most of its length.
“They can be just as destructive as a tornado, but you don’t have a swirling effect going on,” Kines said.
Multiple poles and wires down across cars on West College Avenue between Whitehall Road and Bristol Avenue on Wednesday, April 30, 2025 after a severe storm on Tuesday night. Abby Drey [email protected]
Weather instruments at the State College Regional Airport recorded sustained winds at roughly 52 mph at 6:55 p.m. Tuesday with gusts reaching about 62 mph. Kines said he observed readings of gusts reaching 75 mph in nearby Lemont, too.
Power outages produced by high-wind storms can complicate efforts to accurately record data, Kines said.
“The one problem with verifying wind gusts with these storms is that there’s a lot of power knocked out, so some weather instruments can’t register the wind gusts,” he said. “It’s hard to get verified reports of high winds.”
Derechos form when the wet air from a thunderstorm clashes with drier air around it, forcing water to evaporate and send cool, dense air to the ground. This creates strong winds, or downbursts, that can suck even more dry air into a storm. This process can result in a derecho when strong downbursts occur over a wide area.
Meteorologists consider derechos rather rare among the types of storms seen across the U.S. In a statement, AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alan Reppert said some communities see a storm of this kind only once every 10 or 20 years. AccuWeather said Tuesday’s storm, which stretched for more than 400 miles before waking over Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna Valley, marks the first recorded derecho of 2025.
A truck with a tree on it in the parking lot Westerly Parkway Plaza on Wednesday, April 30, 2025 after a severe storm on Tuesday night. Abby Drey [email protected]
After deliberating with his colleagues, Kines recalled derecho occurrences affecting Centre County in 2020 and 2012, with the latter being particularly destructive, he said. Regardless, derechos remain rare in central Pennsylvania.
“They’re not overly common. They happen, but it’s not like every thunderstorm complex is classified as a derecho,” Kines said. “This certainly was.”
Jody Lair, director of Centre County’s Emergency Management Agency, said damages from Tuesday’s storm reminded her of another storm in mid-March that left thousands without power.
“This was very similar to the March 16th storm,” Lair wrote in an email. “Many trees and wires down with exceptionally high rate of power outages affecting the entire county.”
More than 30,000 people across Centre County are still without power Wednesday morning, according to West Penn Power’s outage map. Most outages don’t show an estimated time of restoration. A FirstEnergy spokesperson said the company expects a multi-day restoration effort across western and central Pennsylvania.
Strong storms throughout Centre County downed many trees and wires and left several roads and schools closed. A 22-year-old State College man died Tuesday of electrocution when he encountered an active electric current from a utility pole as he was putting out a mulch fire.
This story was originally published April 30, 2025 at 11:52 AM.
