At the time, this swatch of storm damage was not called a derecho. There were no National headlines calling this storm a derecho, so you may not have realized that this damage from June 4, 2008 was from a derecho.

Stories from WHSV on the damage in 2008

The first round of storms happened in the early morning, and most were non severe at the time, but there was a lightning strike to a tree.

Then there were two additional rounds of storms.

At the time the damage in Luray was thought to be from a tornado but it was not. This was extremely powerful straight-line winds from the derecho. In fact the National Weather Service did survey this damage.

An aerial survey was conducted in Luray and NWS found an ‘intermittent path’ of damage that was about 3 miles long. This started around the high school and continued to the east. The damage was a result of a powerful microburst.

NWS DAMAGE REPORT: Damage included numerous trees were snapped or uprooted. One home had the tin roof and chimney blown off. Several barns and farm outbuildings were either damaged or destroyed. One mobile home was damaged.

Eight parked vehicles had their windows blown out by wind blown rocks. Many power lines were also downed. The strongest wind in Luray destroyed a large, well constructed 30 foot by 40 foot barn. Total structural damage by local Emergency Management was estimated to be around $237,000.

Winds were estimated to be about 90 mph per the damage.

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