Widespread, Damaging, Unusual December Storm Spawns Derecho, Tornadoes in the Plains, Midwest

Early Wednesday, wind gusts of 100 mph or more were clocked near Colorado Springs, at Taos Ski Area in northern New Mexico and at Russell, Kansas. A peak gust of 107 mph was mearsured near Lamar, Colorado, Wednesday.

Compounding that, a line of severe thunderstorms also produced destructive winds and several reported tornadoes from eastern parts of Nebraska and Kansas to western Wisconsin.

Wind gusts from 80 to 100 mph were measured across portions of Nebraska and Iowa.

(NEWS UPDATE: High Winds, Severe Storms Batter Plains, Midwest)

More than 425 reports of severe weather were tallied up Wednesday, mostly in parts of Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, northern Missouri, southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin. That's the most severe weather reports for a December day in the U.S. since at least 2000, according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center (SPC) database.

Wednesday also had the most 75+ mph wind gust reports for any 24-hour period, according to SPC.

Some tornadoes were also confirmed Wednesday by spotters and emergency managers in central and eastern Nebraska, with damage reported in Columbus and Platte Center. Another tornado was confirmed outside of Algona, Iowa. Minnesota possibly saw its first-ever December tornado Wednesday night, but we are still awaiting confirmation.

There have also been over 100 reports of wind damage not from thunderstorms from Arizona to the Midwest.

These include reports of trees and power poles down, even some structural damage in a few areas including roofs blown off, bent road signs, siding off buildings and, near Norton, Kansas, a partial collapse of a two-story building.

Some non-thunderstorm gusts in the High Plains topped 80 mph and whipped up dense clouds of dust that led to near-zero visibility, at times, in eastern Colorado, western Kansas, southern Nebraska and parts of the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles.

If that wasn't enough, wildfires developed and rapidly spread in parts of western Kansas and the Panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma.

Upper Midwest Severe Threat Unusual For December

The Upper Midwest is not a typical threat area for severe weather in December.

One example of this is the fact that the entire state of Minnesota has never seen a tornado in December since at least 1950.

For that matter, according to tornado researcher Harold Brooks at the National Severe Storms Laboratory, only one severe thunderstorm warning had ever been issued in Minnesota in December prior to this storm.

Iowa has only had six confirmed tornadoes in December since 1950, with the last one hitting the state on Dec. 4, 2017 (rating: EF2).

Wisconsin has seen five confirmed December tornadoes since 1950, and all of those struck in 1970.

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