Possible derecho heading toward New York City

NEW YORK—Weather watchers were scanning the skies for signs of a possible derecho – a line of rapidly moving windstorms that can extend more than 240 miles – as severe thunderstorms moved into New York City in the early evening, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“At this point it is fair to say it is going to probably be a derecho,” Corey Mead with the US Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., told Bloomberg News. “There is definitely going to be a continuous pattern of wind damage across New York, Pennsylvania and southern New England.”

The storm system was not expected to be as severe as the derecho that knocked out power for millions in the Midwest and beyond in late June, the Wall Street Journal reported.

More from GlobalPost: Power outages leave 2.1M without power in heat wave

However, the Weather Channel reported, according to MSNBC, "The potential exists for widespread damaging winds from parts of southern New England to Indiana. At least 36 million people are in this zone." Besides New York City, Cincinnati and Columbus in Ohio and Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania were the major cities expected to bear the brunt of the storm system’s high winds and heavy rain, MSNBC reported.

As of 7 p.m. local time, 300,000 homes and businesses had lost power in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, Bloomberg News reported.

At least 842 flights in the US had been cancelled as of 6:45 p.m. due to the storm system, Bloomberg News reported.

The National Weather Service said possible tornadoes had knocked down trees and blown roofs off buildings in Elmira, N.Y., and Brookville, Pa., as thunderstorms moved through the Northeast United States this afternoon, according to CNN.

AccuWeather Inc. reported that quarter-sized hail had fallen in parts of Pennsylvania, according to Bloomberg News.

More from GlobalPost: Series: The Drylands