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3w ago

Rare Derecho Threat Puts Eastern South Dakota and Southwest Minnesota Under Level 4 Severe-Weather Risk

Fueled by intense heat, storms could organize into a long-lived derecho capable of hurricane-force gusts across the northern Plains, forecasters warn.

In this aerial image from a drone, derecho-damaged grain bins are shown at the Heartland Co-Op grain elevator on August 11, 2020, in Luther, Iowa.
FILE - Rod Pierce looks at grain drying bins on his farm that were damaged in the derecho earlier this month, Aug. 20, 2020, near Woodward, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, file)
FILE- Wind fueled fires burn in a pasture which was part of a fire that burned and stretched across Ellis, Russell, Osborne and Rooks counties, Dec. 16, 2021, near Natoma, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, file)
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Overview

  • A Level 4 risk remains active this afternoon for eastern South Dakota and southwest Minnesota as storms consolidate into a potential derecho expected to produce gusts exceeding 80 mph.
  • Surrounding areas across the northern Plains and Upper Midwest are under Level 3 and Level 2 alerts for damaging winds, large hail and isolated tornadoes.
  • Afternoon supercells are forecast to merge into a forward-propagating mesoscale convective system, broadening the threat of widespread destructive winds from Minnesota into Wisconsin.
  • Saturated soils from weekend rainfall have heightened flash-flood danger, prompting a Level 2 flooding risk alert from the Weather Prediction Center in low-lying and urban areas.
  • Derechos typically occur only once or twice each summer across the US, underscoring the rarity and severity of today’s storm threat in the northern Plains.