# Derecho Tears Through Upper Midwest with 112 mph Winds, Leaving 400,000 Without Power

About this episode

A violent derecho caused widespread destruction across the Upper Midwest, with wind gusts reaching 112 mph and leaving 400,000 without power.

A violent, fast-moving derecho tore across parts of the Upper Midwest this week, turning a warm summer evening into a corridor of destruction that stretched from eastern Iowa into northwest Illinois and southern Wisconsin. According to meteorologist Jacob Dickey’s live coverage on Facebook, the line of storms roared out of Iowa with wind gusts measured up to an astonishing 112 miles per hour, producing widespread structural damage and knocking out power to nearly 400,000 customers at the height of the event. Dickey described it in real time as a “very dangerous line of storms” and explicitly labeled it a derecho, underscoring how organized and long-lived the system had become as it surged east. The setup for this episode started with a dome of unseasonable warmth and humidity over the central United States, building for days ahead of the outbreak. ABC News Live reported that more than 100 million Americans from the Midwest to the Northeast were under some form of severe weather alert as this broader pattern unfolded, with forecasters warning of damaging winds, large hail, and tornadoes from multiple storm complexes. In this particular case, the derecho developed along a sharp…

Topics covered

• severe weather
• derecho
• storm damage
• meteorology
• power outage

Keywords

• derecho
• storm
• winds
• power outage
• Midwest
• meteorologist
• severe weather

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: ABC News Live

Places: Upper Midwest, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin

More episodes of Derecho

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• # Powerful Midwest Windstorm Approaches Derecho Status, Leaves Hundreds of Thousands Without Power · June 4, 2026 · 5 min
• # Powerful Derecho Brings Hurricane-Force Winds Across Central and Eastern U.S. · May 21, 2026 · 4 min
• # Derecho-Like Storms Batter Texas Coast with 119 mph Winds · May 2, 2026 · 2 min