Inside Historic Iowa Derecho - 12/15/21 

Thank goodness you stopped where you decided to stop. Chasing isn't worth losing a life over. Stay safe.

I remember this day. We called it the apocalypse in Manhattan, Kansas because we had so many fires, a tornado warning, a police stand off, it was a crazy day.

Absolutely excellent editting. I can tell the work you put into the videos and it really adds to the content.

This storm actually hit me, it was crazy. A lightning bolt knocked down a powerline right in front of my home, it fell on a bush setting it ablaze for a split second. Trees were taken down, my fence fell onto my shed, scratching the surface. The power was out for a week as well.

I live in Iowa and experienced both the December 2021 derecho, as well as the previous August 2020 Derecho. The latter hit my town harder than the former, but both were daunting to experience and driving around the state and seeing the aftermath was humbling. I didn't know how hard western iowa was hit until this video. Curse my love/hate relationship with tornadoes, storms, and alert sirens. Thanks for being the one to put on your balls of steel and brave/document this stuff first hand. Heres hoping this coming outbreak (April 4 2023) is gonna be tame, especially considering im standing right in the gunsights this time.

I’m 17 years old and this was probably one of the scariest storms I’ve ever witnessed in Iowa I remember taking my sister down to the basement into my closet and praying that we would all ok

I am a storm chaser from Sioux Falls, SD, and was just beginning to storm chase around this time. I don't know what was going through my mind, but I thought it would be a good idea to get in front of this storm, with barely any chasing experience. I remember probably speeding north from Moville because I was just so unprepared. You may have seen my vehicle speed past at one point. But I made it up to Kingsley and actually parked my car under a gas canopy and took shelter in the corner gas station in Kingsley, before someone was nice enough to let me take shelter in their basement, because I had no idea what was going on since Radarscope, the only app I used at the time, unfortunately had an outage. Let's just say that was by far one of the stupidest things I'd ever done, but lessons learned lol.

That was an insane unforgettable storm. It hit Traverse City Michigan pretty hard when it passed over, and it took down trees and damaged homes right across the street from me. Our place felt like it was gonna rip apart a few times, couldn't sleep that night.

I just found your channel a month or so ago and I’m super excited to see what other content you put out. The way you helped those people in Rolling Fork was touching, you and your dad are awesome! Keep doing what you’re doing ❤

This was an amazing video!!! I remember this day so well. Driving my FedEx van that afternoon in Northwest Iowa was an absolute blast…as it approached, the sirens started going off like crazy and things got real 😳

This was crazy! I was sitting at home watching tv when I noticed one of our trees was bent over sideways, and shingles and leaves were flying past the window. No sirens or anything, it just happened. I hadn’t even heard of a derecho before this lol.

Just stumbled on your team and I love the videos! The way you narrate them reminds me of Pecos Hank.

what a great video. On par with Pecos! you got all the filming you could.. that thing was going SO fast

Thank you for recording this video. Sadly, my house was hit by this horrible storm, and we were in the worst part of the storm, up to 140 mph. Anyway, you are amazing! Thanks!

Really great work, Freddy! Awesome vid! 🙌

Can't believe it took me 5 months to find this. Really well done.

Amazing video, probably something to watch on repeat. Ty also for not having any misinformation because it has kind of become a trend for some chasers to say what they think instead of what actually happened.

This was the second derecho to hit the bulk of Iowa in 16 months. A lot of damage both times and these storms went through the same areas. There were tornadoes actually all around the town I live in that were recorded. From EF0 to EF2. I have no clue how my town was missed. It was scary.

Awesome video!!

I’m from Hinton! Pretty dang close to Lawton and Kingsley, literally like 5 mins, but luckily the Loess Hills give us some cover from the wind and usually prevents tornadoes 😅 it was a wild day that’s for sure! So cool to see this footage from close to home.

I vividly remember this day, I worked at the hard rock in Sioux City and was at a security checkpoint when I saw everything roll through, it went from daytime to pitch black for a solid 12 minutes, dust legitimately covered cars, the ground, anything really, it was insane, I don’t wanna see one for a while

I was in MN that day. Driving home through the snow south of the twin cities and remember seeing lightning and amazing wall clouds all while waves of snow whipped by, it was a very scary night and something we had never seen in minnesota before.

It twas really nerve racking after having to deal with the 2020 August Derecho then having to deal with one for 2021.

Imagine. This Derecho happened on December 15, 2021, and then Canada gets hit by another Derecho on May 21, 2022. This is insane. The climates are getting drastic now..

I live in Iowa and lived through both this and the derecho of 2020. It was really scary. The tree in our front yard fell on the front of our house. I looked out the window and saw the neighbors trampoline smash into another neighbors house. After it ended, me, my sister, and some friends walked around our neighborhood to survey the damage and found Atleast 10 trampolines scattered around roads and too many fallen tree branches and large pieces of debris to count. Soooo many houses (including my own) were damaged and the power lines were out for days. Truly the most scary day of my life. Stay safe out there! Storm chasing must be terrifying!

I remember when the derecho hit where i was at the time. I was in a trailer park inside of a motor-home. (Iowa)

I was in southwest michigan when it hit and it went from clear sunny skies to dark angry could within 10 minutes

I never heard of a derecho until last year. Southern ontario got hit with a pretty intense derecho. Winds were estimated to have peaked at 118mph. Most intense storm I've ever experienced, I was out of power for 2 days, but some places were out for nearly a week.

😮Oh my these videos are insane!! Man 100 mph wind is scary.

I remember this day, we live in southwest Iowa and we got a tornado warning at like 7:30 PM i think and we could smell smoke from Nebraska and unlike any December nights, it was pitch black. We also lost some shingles and a power line fell down.

I had just got loaded with corn from wi headed down to ADM in Cedar Rapids when that hit. I was going down 151 and the amount of lightning was amazing. It was sooo dark and the wind hit like a bomb. Laid down truck ever where and parts of buildings. I get to cedar and my truck was the tallest thing there. Had to go to Clinton as they had to use train engines as generators to run the plant to unload ever one that was going to Cedar Rapids. It was a mess.

This is certainly one for the record books! I was at home for the whole day, not to through caution to the wind. At 3:30 p.m., a 90 m.p.h. non thunderstorm related wind gust raced through my yard, moving from the south to the north. I have been a Skywarn Spotter for the NWS for over forty years, and I never have seen such a display of wind speed like my life!! At nearly the same time, a F-2 rated tornado was about 4 miles away, to my west, moving from south to north as well. And to think that this all happened on 15th of December! Magna opera Domini

I have never seen a derecho in my area but it looks very impressive !

I live in west-central Iowa, there were three tornadoes within 4 miles of my house, including an EF-0 that was less than 1/4 mile away!

That looked about as serious as it gets. Glad yall are safe as at 70 mph any rotation would be on and over you in an instant. That's spring and summer weather huh? Guess similar winter weather events are something we might as well get used too.

I survived this, lost power for 5 days due to a giant oak tree falling on the lines and crushing a car

it was my birthday and i was on the top end of the MN portion, it was a REALLY weird feeling getting a severe thunderstorm warning 10 days before Christmas LOL

Here in Salina Kansas we experienced some winds 82 mph from the derecho was recorded at our airport

One thing about the warnings is that they extend them out for an hours worth of travel. The east end of the warnings were at times 100 miles ahead of the storms. Due to the extreme speed. The Atlantic tornado beat the Tri State tornado for speed by at least 15-20MPH.

We live on a gravel road just outside of a small town in iowa. My dad dragged me outside to watch and he was saying how cool it was meanwhile on the ring you can see thunder strike the backyard and i have a full on panic attack. Probably why lightning gives me ptsd.

Hey Fred 👋! Nice vid man

That crazy especially in December In Iowa and I believe this is the largest qlcs tornado outbreak ever usually you get a storm like that in the summer

Bro why did that December have such crazy and weird weather? With many tornado outbreaks and I remember being surprisingly warm down here in the south most of that month

Duhraycheeo

Such a great video! Would you be able to make a similar video on the August 10th, 2020 derecho? I live in Chicago and that storm brought some of the worst damage and flooding to date if I am correct. An overview of that storm would be great :) - Thanks, Carrington

So many Christmas decorations were lost that day

As an Iowan I’ve delt with a lot of storms and tornado warnings. This storm was the first time I’ve ever taken shelter in the basement. Granted I have children now so that’s probably a big part of it but this storm scared me as it happened in the middle of the night and I was more so nervous about a tree falling through my roof.

I remember this storm and it started super nice and then it became the most intense storm I have ever seen!

Nice work.

Hi,this year 2023 was a small derecho in Czech Republic but no tornado.Big dameges but everythink was ok.

When the headlights hit the rain like it was a solid wall in front of you 😰

So when this thing hit you guys hard, did the windows really look that opaque or is this a camera thing? When you guys say you see something coming i can't see anything at all then walls of water

I remember this day, for were I lived it was well below freezing, an hour or so later it got to the 60s and thunderstorms rolled through. It was an odd day

Good job my fellow chaser

i was working out at trugreen in des moines iowa during this i was stuck at a caseys holding the doors closed for them

I remember this one!

That was insane

I will never forget that day because we had a surprise birthday party for my mom she right as we were preparing to leave the sirens went off

I Living In Colorado At The Time & It Was Sunny But It Was Super Windy

this derecho actually hit my area pretty badly. most places closed early since there was about an hour and a half of lead time before the storm hit.

Our house almost got hit by a tornado from this storm in Stanley,WI

First time I've ever heard derecho pronounced as "DER-REY-SHEE-OH" or "DER-REY-CHEE-OH" like there's an "i" in there somewhere. Good vid.

I live west of Des Moines and it was brutal

soon this’ll be a new normal, with the rising temperatures and crazy weather patterns unlike anything we’ve seen

🔥

I lost a tree branch in South Western Wisconsin this night I didn't realize it until I got home from work the next day, but that's besides the point

I remember this cause i was in the heart of it happening In Nebraska

We got severe storms while snow was on the ground

This was a really historic event that got overshadowed by the Dec 10-11 outbreak that happened just days earlier and got more media attention.

oh my god, this is so far the worst derecho, i hope that everyone was safe

I live in North Iowa and have seen it all. Or so I thought. December 15th was like the end times. Fire snow hail wind tornadoes. Look at a list of the top tornado outbreaks in Iowa, December 15 2021 is now #1 and it beat the previous record by about 30. Iowa has 99 counties. 97 of them had some sort of warning (tornado or severe thunderstorm warning). Something else that has never happened.

This was posted on my birthday

I’ll never forget was one of craziest days of my life totaled my car hail larger than my fat hand too absolutely insane

Living in Eastern Iowa, this didn't have the same impact as the Derecho of August 10, 2020.

Dec, snow on ground. and tornado warning... sounds like a normal december in Indiana...

Stormchasing is something > love watching, and would love to do, but im not moving just for my hobby. Luckly we have channels to watch it!

This was absurd for December weather!

Duhrayshio. The lost brother of horatio.

I got hit but luckily only one of my windows broke and a big tree narrowly missed our house

Living in north central iowa, I saved a Snapchat memory from this day cause the weather made zero sense to me…63° in December?? No f’in way. Funny to finally learn the context nearly 2.5yrs later.

What's a "de-ray-she-oh"

2 years since the derecho

This was made it all the way to Ontario, we lost power for 36 hours.

This is all chemistry

Derecho. Not derechio or deratio.

It was scary, it hit my house.

Happened on my birthday

The legendary what was it 63 tornadoes in Iowa that day I live in Des Moines and I washed my car that day then this happened

De-re-cho Not derechio lol

Stud

This storm had less than a 0.1% chance of happening 😢

I WAS IN LIKE FIRST GRADE WHEN THIS HAPPENED AND I WAS IN COLUMBUS 4:50

No mention of 100+ mph wind blowing wildfires across west-central KS? I know we're the flyover of flyover country but come on.

Love the video. However... DER-RAY-CHO 😊

I was like Sioux city where it hit good thing i was safe (e)

Amazing video! However, I do have to point out your pronunciation of "derecho" as "derechio", as if it was spelled with an "i". It's Spanish for "straight", and pronounced de-re-cho, as in like Calle 8 (ocho) in Miami, FL.

Cruzes kk...🌊🌧🌊

Duh ray cho

Duh-RAY’-cho

There's no i in derecho