National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Dangerous Heat in the Central and Southern U.S.; Thunderstorms and Heavy Rain in the Northern Plains

Dangerous, prolonged heat is expected across portions of the Central and Southeast U.S. through July. Scattered severe thunderstorms are expected over parts of the northern Plains into the upper Mississippi Valley Tuesday, with damaging winds and large hail as the primary threats. Heavy rainfall could lead to areas of flooding across the northern Plains, Upper Midwest, Southeast and Southwest. Read More >

Overview

From the late afternoon of January 13 through January 14, 2021, a powerful low pressure system brought very strong winds to western and central North Dakota. The strongest observed wind gust was 93 mph at the Williston Basin Airport. There were many reports of property and tree damage, along with a few power outages. This event will go down as one of the worst non-thunderstorm wind events in recent memory.

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Highest wind gusts observed as of 1 PM CST on Thursday, January 14th. Colors are interpolated between observations.