Severe storms accompanied by rain and hail swept through the Midwest and Northeast regions of the country Thursday night, canceling hundreds of flights and leaving tens of thousands of people without power. The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center had issued a severe weather outlook warning of the risk for "widespread damaging winds" from Indiana and Ohio across Pennsylvania, southeast New York, into western Massachusetts and Connecticut.” At least one person was dead after a line of intense thunderstorms touched down in the New York City tri-state area producing a large amount of wind damage, in a weather phenomenon called a derecho, NBC 4 New York reported. However, this isn't the first case of extreme weather to sweep through the U.S. this summer. Just a few weeks ago, a heat wave roasted much of the country, aggravating what was already the worst U.S. drought in more than five decades.
