The dangerous winds now pummeling the Central states threaten to knock over vehicles, trigger power outages and cause significant property damage, but the effect of the winds will also exacerbate ongoing drought and elevate the risk of wildfires. Wind gusts between 40 and 50 mph will be common across a massive area stretching more than 1,000 miles from the Canadian prairies to the plains of Texas and Oklahoma. However, some locations will have much stronger winds than that.
"The strongest winds are expected over portions of eastern Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, northern Colorado and northwestern Kansas with gusts of 50-60 mph," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Mike LeSeney.