In Minnesota, the National Weather Service office in Twin Cities said it had confirmed a tornado in Plainview. This is the first tornado ever reported in the state in December, according to NOAA data. The storm is moving northeast at 70 mph.
Before today, there has never been a tornado in Minnesota during the winter months of December, January, or February.
As of 9:20 p.m. EST, there were also 19 reports of tornadoes and the possibility of tornadoes in Iowa and Nebraska, according to the Hurricane Prediction Center. About 300 reports of severe winds have come from across the Central Plains and into the Midwest.
Wind gusts of up to 107 mph in Lamar, Colorado, toppled pickup trucks, toppled roofs and toppled trees, according to Mayor Kirk Crespin, according to Mayor Kirk Crespin.
“It’s been an exciting day here in Lamar, and a record-breaking windy day,” he said. “The gusts caused widespread damage.”
Crespin says all emergency management personnel are active and working hard to keep the community safe.
“We damaged trees and power lines and the internet,” Crespin said. “We’re working hard to keep everyone safe.”
Crespin said crews had been out all day trying to clean up wind damage and repair lines and they would continue to work through the afternoon and evening.
“We will have a lot of damage to repair when the wind dies,” he said.
Mike Smaldino, public information officer for the Colorado Springs Fire Department, said that sustained winds and gusts caused significant damage in Colorado Springs.
“The roof of our fire department was partially blown off,” Smaldino said. “Just driving into the city, I saw about a dozen pickup trucks overturned.”
Smaldino says that the number of calls to the fire department has nearly quadrupled in the past three hours. “We’re dealing with gas leaks, grass fires down from power lines and smoldering trees.”
A gas leak at Chapel Hills Shopping Center prompted authorities to evacuate the mall. According to Smaldino, the leak has been stopped and the air is being cleaned.
Several locations, including the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, have reported gusts of 100 mph or more, according to the National Weather Service.
Strong gusts of wind were recorded in at least seven states as of 4 p.m. EST.
High winds are creating dust storm conditions over parts of the Plains. Interstate 70 was closed for hours in both directions from the Colorado state line to Russell, Kansas, with sand and dust creating near-zero visibility, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation.
Airport spokesman Joe McBride said bad weather at Kansas City International Airport prompted air traffic controllers to briefly evacuate their workspaces due to “wind and weather conditions.” is that it’s a 256-foot tall glass case.”
In New Mexico, Taos County Commissioner Candyce O’Donnell said at least 10 homes were damaged by high winds.
More than 80 million people are under wind warnings from the storm and more than 35 million are on high winds, including residents of Denver, Kansas City, Omaha, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Chicago.
Power outages are expected to intensify as the field of strong winds expands and spreads eastward.
In Kansas, more than 130,000 customers – homes, businesses and institutions – are without electricity. The outage numbers for the other states affected by the bad weather are:
- Colorado, 81,549
- Iowa, 50,966
- Missouri, 45,415
- Nebraska, 22,696
At least nine wildfires are burning in northwest and western Oklahoma, according to Oklahoma Emergency Management Public Information Officer Keli Cain.
Cain said a red flag and high wind warning is in effect for many counties.
The biggest fire was in Guymon, where an evacuation order was issued, according to Cain.
“The other big problem we’ve had is simply high winds. We’ve got a high-wind warning in effect for some counties as well as in the Northwest, Oklahoma. And then we issued a statement. Wind advice is in effect for most of the rest of the counties in Oklahoma,” she said.
According to Cain, wind can cause problems with power lines and some roof damage has been reported.
Cain notes that “people need to be especially careful with any activity that could trigger a bushfire because the winds are very, very strong and it can get out of control very quickly.”
In Texas, several hundred people have been told to “evacuate or prepare to evacuate” the city of Iowa Park due to two fires, according to Melvin Joyner, Deputy Wichita County Sheriff’s Office.
“We have two separate fires going on, so they’re trying to get them under control, but it’s going to be a little bit,” he said. “The fire changed direction a few times, but all we could do was keep an eye on it.”
Iowa Park is about 150 miles northwest of Dallas.
CNN’s Dave Hennen, Raja Razek and Jenn Selva contributed to this report.
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