US has windiest day on record as storms batter Midwest

AP

Heavy winds have battered parts of the US in recent weeks, which culminated in the windiest day on record, new data suggests.

According to the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center, at least 55 reports of hurricane-force thunderstorm wind gusts were tracked across the Great Plains and the Midwest on Wednesday.

Over 80 million people were affected by weather alerts during this 24 hours period, with 300 individual weather warnings being issued.

“I’ve been doing this 30 years, and we’re seeing things today in the CNN Weather Center we have never seen before,” CNN meteorologist Tom Sater said.

While the frequency and severity of storms is expected to abate in the coming weeks, the damage has already been done in many parts of the country.

Heavy downpours were forecast in the US West on Tuesday and into Wednesday as a powerful storm system moved across the region (NWS)

Minnesota reported its first-ever December tornado since records began. On Wednesday alone, almost 20 tornados were documented across Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska.

In the Midwest, more than 470,000 people were left without power on Thursday morning, with Michigan and Wisconsin chiefly affected, according to poweroutage.us.

Further south, high winds have also wreaked havoc. Air traffic controllers briefly evacuated Kansas City International Airport due “to wind and the fact that it is a glass box 256 feet up in the air,” in the words of spokesperson Joe McBride.

Texas has also had to contend with a spate of wildfires in the wake of extremely unseasonal conditions.

“Dangerous, life-threatening fire weather conditions are likely with fast-moving and uncontrollable fire spread due to extreme wind and dry conditions,” the Storm Prediction Center said on Wednesday morning.

Severe Weather Midwest (The Des Moines Register)

In addition, it noted that this was the first time in the history of the SPC that it was forecasting an “extremely critical” fire threat in the month of December for Southern and Central areas.

The gravest concern for President Joe Biden will be a repeat of the devastation brought by last week’s deadly tornado in Kentucky, which was caused by yet another highly unusual outbreak.

Friday night’s tornado ripped through Mayfield and Dawson Springs, with a width of a mile or more across.

Kentucky Emergency Management has updated the death toll to 74, with additional casualties also being reported in neighbouring states.