Midwest Derecho and Tornado Outbreak
One of the severe storm disasters on NOAA’s billion-dollar list: $2.0 billion in losses at 2024 prices ($1.8 billion at the time) and 1 deaths.
What the offices filed during it
The 22 most significant severe storm episodes filed in these dates, colored by kind.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Losses, 2024 dollars
- $2.0 billion
- Losses at the time
- $1.8 billion
- Deaths
- 1
The losses and deaths are NCEI’s, counting everything the disaster did. The episodes below are only what the Weather Service filed in its Storm Events record, which counts damage differently and often not at all, so the two never add up and are shown apart.
By state, as filed
Episode by episode
- Flash Flooding and Flooding in California, December 14 to 15, 2021A frontal system accompanied by an atmospheric river moved into Southern California in the middle of December. This impacted the area by flooding and wind damage, as well as higher elevations receiving significant snowfall, where roads were impacted.
- Tornadoes and Hail in Nebraska, December 15, 2021A historic onslaught of swift moving severe thunderstorms with embedded tornadoes, followed by several hours of severe gradient winds and areas of blowing dust/smoke (and even a touch of wind-whipped snow) unfolded within South Central Nebraska on this Wednesday…
- Tornadoes and Damaging Winds in Iowa, December 15, 2021A low pressure system brought strong (both thunderstorm, and non-thunderstorm) winds, tornadoes, dust, snow, and record temperatures into eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. The event was determined to be a derecho meeting the criteria of wind damage.
- Tornadoes and Hail in Nebraska, December 15, 2021A low pressure system brought strong (both thunderstorm, and non-thunderstorm) winds, tornadoes, dust, snow, and record temperatures into eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Kansas, December 15, 2021An very anomalous storm system produced a squall line with embedded supercells on 12/15. The squall line impacted our entire CWA and caused widespread wind damage. Winds were reported as high as 100 mph with the line of storms, which is now referred to as a serial derecho.
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Missouri, December 15, 2021On December 15, 2021, a large-scale weather event rolled through the Central Plains and Upper Midwest bringing tornadoes, dust storms, wildfires, and snow across several central and northern states.
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Kansas, December 15, 2021On December 15, 2021, a large-scale weather event rolled through the Central Plains and Upper Midwest bringing tornadoes, dust storms, wildfires, and snow across several central and northern states.
- Tornadoes and Damaging Winds in Iowa, December 15 to 16, 2021An unprecedented storm system lifted across the central Plains from December 15 into the early hours of December 16. Kinematic fields were at the top of the climatological distributions, leading to extreme wind shear in the lowest levels.
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, December 15 to 16, 2021December 15, 2021 was an unprecedented and historic event for the state of Iowa and the central US.
- Damaging Winds in Kansas, December 15, 2021An isolated severe storm produced localized damaging winds.
- Tornadoes and Damaging Winds in Minnesota, December 15, 2021A low pressure system of historic strength led to a variety of high-end weather impacts from the central plains to the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes December 15-16.
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, December 15, 2021An intense storm system moved across the Upper Midwest on December 15th and produced a rare severe weather outbreak across northeast Iowa. Eight tornadoes occurred across parts of Floyd, Chickasaw and Howard Counties.
- Tornadoes and Hail in Minnesota, December 15, 2021An intense storm system moved across the Upper Midwest on December 15th and produced a rare severe weather outbreak across southeast Minnesota. One person was killed near Rochester (Olmsted County) when a large tree fell on the victim.
- Damaging Winds in Iowa, December 15, 2021An intense storm system brought record warmth, high winds, and a serial derecho though Iowa and the Upper Midwest on December 15th. This storm system produced a line of severe storms which continually produced damaging winds and tornadoes from Nebraska through much of Iowa.
- Tornadoes and Damaging Winds in Wisconsin, December 15, 2021A low pressure system of historic strength led to a variety of high-end weather impacts from the central plains to the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes December 15-16.
- Tornadoes and Hail in Wisconsin, December 15, 2021An intense storm system moved across the Upper Midwest on December 15th and produced a rare severe weather outbreak across western Wisconsin. Eight tornadoes occurred across parts of Trempealeau, Jackson and Clark Counties. Four of these tornadoes were rated EF2 and three EF1.
- Damaging Winds in Missouri, December 15, 2021A cold front moved through the region, triggering showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms produced damaging winds.
- Damaging Wind in Illinois, December 15, 2021A cold front moved through the region, triggering showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms produced damaging winds.
- Damaging Winds in Wisconsin, December 15, 2021A historical event unfolded across the central United States on Friday (12/15) as a strong storm system tracked across the central Plains and through the Upper Mississippi Valley.
- Damaging Winds in Illinois, December 15, 2021An intense storm system brought record warmth, high winds, and a serial derecho though Iowa and the Upper Midwest on December 15th. This storm system produced a line of severe storms which continually produced damaging winds and tornadoes from Nebraska through much of Iowa.
- Damaging Wind in Wisconsin, December 15, 2021A broken line of thunderstorms ahead of a cold front produced high winds at Tri-County Regional Airport just north of Lone Rock.
- Flash Flood in Texas, December 16, 2021A weak surface front drifted southeast into portions of extreme Northeast Texas and Southwest Arkansas during the afternoon of December 16th, before becoming stationary near the I-30 corridor late in the day.
More
Every billion-dollar disasterEvery storm of 2021Tornadoes in 2021
Sources
NOAA NCEI, U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters (2025), https://doi.org/10.25921/stkw-7w73, and the Storm Events Database for the episodes.