Ice Storms in Winter and Tornadoes in Spring: A Review of "Great Plains Weather"

Kenneth F. Dewey | Great Plains Weather | University of Nebraska Press | 2019 | 200 Pages

Extreme weather is a familiar part of life for the nation’s midsection, and climate change analysis raises concerns about future challenges. Such analysis indicates, for example, that the greatest tornado frequency may be shifting eastward from the northern plains and into the heart of the Midwest, affecting Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana. Kenneth F. Dewey, a climatologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, uses accessible prose and vivid examples to examine a wide array of weather factors affecting the region in Great Plains Weather.

The book’s central theme is the Great Plains’ extraordinarily variable and volatile weather. The regular collision of weather systems in the region produces ice storms in winter and spins up tornadoes in the spring. Residents can experience startlingly abrupt weather changes—the “Great Plains temperature roller-coaster,” in Dewey’s phrasing. The town of Valentine, Nebraska, provides a striking example: Over a two-day period in early 1989, it experienced a temperature drop of almost 100 degrees. After enjoying an afternoon high of 70 degrees Fahrenheit on January 31, residents felt the brunt of an Arctic cold front that by February 2 yanked the overnight low temperature down to minus 26 degrees. Nebraska during March, Dewey writes, “has seen well-below-zero temperatures with paralyzing blizzards as well as early-summer heat with highs in the 90s.” 

To illustrate the Great Plains’ dramatically unpredictable weather, Dewey ranks U.S. states and cities by their temperature range—the difference between their record high and record low. Mild climates understandably produce a small temperate range for certain cities. The range for Key West, Florida is only 56 degrees (a record high of 97 degrees and a record low of 41 degrees). Honolulu, Hawaii has an even smaller range, a mere 43 degrees. Great Plains states, in contrast, experience brutal winter cold and intense summer heat. North Dakota has the Great Plains’ biggest temperature range, at 181 degrees (a record high of 121 degrees and a record low of minus 60). 

Dewey understandably devotes much attention to the region’s tornadoes. The nation experienced 58,000 of the wind storms between 1950 and 2016, with 6,081 deaths. The southeastern United States, in contrast to the Plains, generally experiences tornadoes throughout the year and has more tornadoes at night, which on average produce higher fatalities. An Illinois native who has lived in Nebraska since the mid-1970s, Dewey enlivens his analysis by providing vignettes from his decades of covering weather, with vivid examples even back to his youth in the 1960s in a Chicago suburb. 

This concise volume is one of the latest in the well-edited book series on the Great Plains by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Center for Great Plains Studies. Previous topics in the series include literature, politics, Native Americans, and the bison. In slim paperback volumes, the authors draw on their personal experiences to examine key dynamics shaping the Great Plains. The series sets a notable example of accessible scholarly studies that regionalists in other parts of the country should consider emulating. In Great Plains Weather, Dewey commendably takes what could have been a dry, technical subject and renders it in rewarding form for a general audience.