Impressive Derecho, Storms And Dust Swept The Northern Plains Thursday

Violet storm and haboob approaching Sioux Falls,
South Dakota last week. Photo via twitter, @NancyAllard17

While we await some potential severe weather later today, I am still agog at the wild storms that swept through parts of the Midwest this past Thursday.  

The storms later today might be dangerous, but Thursday's episode was in a league of its own. 

An impressive line of storms known as a derecho swept through a good chunk of Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota Thursday with wind gusts as high as 107 mph.  Needless to say, widespread damage was left behind.

The storm has been blamed for three deaths.

The storms were a derecho, defined as a fast moving line of intense thunderstorms that lasts for many hours. By definition a derecho produces a swath of damage of at least 240 miles and causes frequent wind gusts of at least 58 mph.

Thursday's event easily met this criteria.  

Preliminary data indicates there were 55 reports of wind gusts of at least 75 mph. This ranks second in the number of such reports with a derechos. Thursday's derecho now means the top four highest wind speed derechos, at least as measured by the number of hurricane-force wind gust reports, have happened in the past two years. 

The derecho with the biggest number of 75 mph+ reports was 64 with a storm last December. Ranking third is the Iowa derecho of August, 2010, which was the most expensive thunderstorm in U.S. history.  Iowa has now been hit with three of the top four worst derechos. 

Thursday's derecho focused its fury on eastern Nebraska and eastern South Dakota, and large swaths of Iowa and Minnesota. 

As the storms briefly turned day into night, the howling winds caused immense damage. 

In Tripp, South Dakota, the wind gusted to a whopping 107 mph. Drone video from the town showed four large grain elevators toppled, and structural damage to several buildings. 

The fast moving line of storms - the forward motion of these things was more than 70 mph - kicked up walls of dust. These are known as haboobs, which are huge dust storms that drop visibility to zero and are obviously very dangerous to anyone out on the highways. 

Haboobs are pretty common in places like Arizona and Texas.  But they're relatively rare in the central and northern Plains. At least they've been rare since the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s.

At least five tornadoes were embedded within this derecho. The worst was in Castlewood, South Dakota where a tornado swept through the middle of town, badly damaging the community school and destroying a number of houses.

Video.

As always, click on the links if you can't see the video displayed in this post on your device.

Here's video from the Argus Leader of the haboob sweeping into Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 

Fox Weather obtained video of the tornado and storm sweeping into Castlewood, South Dakota:

Kevin W. Ray captured the approach of the storm and a tree falling in his Sioux Falls neighborhood: