DES MOINES, Iowa — Editor's note: The video above previously aired on December 15, 2021.
Two years have passed since Iowa experienced one of its wildest weather days in recent memory.
Dec. 15, 2021 featured everything from extreme warmth to high winds, an unprecedented derecho, and a historic tornado outbreak.
The National Weather Service in Des Moines says 63 tornadoes touched down that day, making it the biggest single-day tornado outbreak in Iowa's recorded history.
The outbreak surpassed the previous record of 35 on Aug. 31, 2014.
21 of the 63 tornadoes were EF-2 or stronger, and this single-day outbreak accounted for more than half of Iowa's total 2021 tornado count.
Prior to the Dec. 15, 2021, outbreak, only five tornadoes had occurred statewide in the month of December since 1950.
The total number of tornadoes was even higher for the region. 120 were reported in Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin combined.
It wasn't only tornadoes, though. .
A derecho also occurred on this date last year: the first derecho ever recorded anywhere in the United States during the month of December.
A derecho is a long-lived line of thunderstorms that produces intense wind gusts over a large area.
Specific criteria have to be reached in order to label a storm complex as a derecho:
- The swath of wind damage must extend more than 250 miles, producing wind gusts of 58 mph or greater along most of its length
- It must also include several, well-separated 75 mph or greater wind gusts
- The damage path also needs to be greater than 50 miles wide
All of the criteria listed above were met on Dec. 15, 2021.
Outside of the severe weather, non-thunderstorm wind gusts were exceptionally high. Des Moines recorded a wind gust of 74 mph, while many areas exceeded 80 mph for standard wind gusts. A rare High Wind Warning was issued for all of Iowa.
Temperatures soared into the 70s that afternoon, with an all-time record high of 75° reported in Oskaloosa, Muscatine, Iowa City, and Ottumwa. Des Moines reached 74°, tying the state's previous December record set on December 6, 1939 in Thurman.
Damage from the Dec. 15, 2021 derecho and severe weather outbreak topped $1 billion.