Storm damage in Lincoln County, South Dakota
UNDATED (AP) – The National Weather Service has preliminarily classified overnight storms from the Upper Plains to the Midwest as a derecho. The term describes a long-lived line of storms with extreme winds.
The Storm Prediction Center made the determination based on local reports of straight-line winds of over 60 mph from the Dakotas into Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and western Wisconsin. Many areas reported gusts over 75 mph, with the highest at 99 mph in northwestern Iowa. The storms caused power outages and damage but were less destructive than past derechos.
The weather service’s Storm Prediction Center said Tuesday it made the determination based on local storm reports showing straight-line winds gusting well over 60 mph from South Dakota and into Iowa, Minnesota and western areas of Illinois and Wisconsin from late Monday into early Tuesday. A storm is classified as a derecho if its wind damage swath extends more than 240 miles and has wind gusts of at least 58 mph or greater along most of the length of the storm’s path.
Many areas reported gusts of over 75 mph. The highest reading appeared to be in northwestern Iowa just before 10 p.m. Monday, when a gust clocked at 99 mph was recorded at Sioux Center.
The high winds tore down trees and tree limbs throughout the region, damaged some buildings and left thousands of customers without power. The derecho was not nearly as destructive as others in recent history, like one in 2020 that traveled from eastern Nebraska across Iowa and into Wisconsin and Illinois, reaching wind speeds of a major hurricane and flattening an estimated 100,000 trees in and around Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
A December 2021 derecho in the Great Plains and Upper Midwest spawned at least 45 tornadoes, caused widespread damage and killed at least five people.
The overnight storms didn’t drop as much rain as was feared, meteorologists said.
“It looks like everything certainly stayed under 2 inches,” said Alexis Jimenez, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Des Moines, Iowa.
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