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Wind Damage Late Sunday Into Monday In Parts Of Region Caused By Unusual Phenomenon

May 21, 2025 Steve Schwaller

(Undated)– We’re learning new information into a strong wind event late Sunday night and early Monday that caused significant damage in scattered areas of northwest Iowa. Peter Rogers of the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls says they received reports of wind as high as 60 to 70 mph in some locations. He says that was the case even though there were no severe thunderstorms in the region at the time…

“The majority of these stronger wind gusts, like I said 60, 70 mph were on the back side of those showers and storms as they moved through. So when we put out these reports this morning of these wind speeds, we actually consider them non-thunderstorm winds. It’s something called a wake low if you want to get real technical. It’s just a big pressure differences between airmasses as those showers and storms moved through, which helped induce those stronger winds, but it’s not your typical thunderstorm wind gusts like you would perhaps normally expect in a summer thunderstorm.”

There were reports of tree and structural damage from areas in Lyon, Sioux and Emmet counties in northwest Iowa. There were no reports of any injuries.

(Thanks to Community First Broadcasting station KIWA in Sheldon for contributing to this story)

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