High Wind — Mills, Iowa

2024-12-19 · Mills, Iowa

Event narrative

There were two personal weather stations that measured a 66 and 67 miles per hour wind gust in Mills County. These wind gusts were artificially high, though given observations from surrounding counties, wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour were likely to have occurred during this time frame.

Wider weather episode

Upper-air analysis at 12 UTC on the 19th showed troughing over the eastern CONUS and ridging over the western CONUS. In the northern Great Plains, a shortwave trough embedded in northwesterly flow aloft dove southeast over the course of the day. At the surface, a strong low-pressure system was analyzed in the Dakotas with a warm front extending into the lower-Missouri River Valley, and a cold front extending west into the northern High Plains. This storm system dove southeast into the upper-Mississippi River Valley as the cold front surged south across the OAX forecast area. Very strong flow of 70 knots at the top of the boundary layer, aided by subsidence immediately behind the cold front brought very strong winds gusting 60 to 65 miles per hour during the early and mid afternoon hours. As a result of these strong winds, isolated power outages, downed trees, and overturned semis were all reported across the area.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1221071. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.