DES MOINES, Iowa -- Thursday is the first anniversary of a derecho that spawned dozens of tornadoes and did millions of dollars in damage in Iowa.
The National Weather Service says the December 15th, 2021 storm was the first-ever derecho recorded anywhere in the United States in the month of December.
The 63 tornadoes it produced is the most in Iowa on a single day, and accounted for more than half of the state's tornadoes for 2021. The most single-day tornadoes before then was 35 on the evening of August 31st, 2014.
The Weather Service says prior to the December 15th derecho, a grand total of just five tornadoes happened in Iowa in December since 1950--and all of those were in Southeast Iowa.
it was also warm that day, breaking the all-time record high temperature for Iowa in December. It was 75 degrees in Oskaloosa, Muscatine, Iowa City, and Ottumwa. The previous December record was 74 degrees in Thurman, IA on December 6th, 1939.
Tornadoes and thunderstorms from the 12/15/21 derecho did a billion dollars damage across the state.