Five people were killed by extreme hurricane-like winds on Thursday in Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota as December brought more dangerous weather after a series of deadly tornadoes ripped across the South last week, killing 89.

The winds caused a 40-foot tree to strike and kill a 65-year-old man outside his house, while blinding dust in Kansas caused two car accidents that killed three people. In Iowa, a truck tipped over and killed the driver.

“To have this number of damaging wind storms at one time would be unusual any time of year. But to have this happen in December is really abnormal,” said Brian Barjenbruch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Valley, Nebraska.

The storms left 190,000 homes and businesses without power in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Kansas. There were 59 reports of hurricane-like wind gusts along with 20 reported tornadoes. The storms knocked over power lines and trailers, and caused 70 cows to be electrocuted and killed in Michigan.

The winds may have been caused by unseasonal 70-degree temperatures in Iowa and Wisconsin, but the conditions causing the tornadoes remain unclear.

“In the middle of December, it’s obviously extraordinary, unprecedented,” said Mike Fowle, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service

Scientists say extreme weather events are likely the result of climate change, but there isn’t enough data to determine if the deadly storms were caused by global warming.

“I think we also need to stop asking the question of whether or not this event was caused by climate change. We need to be asking, `To what extent did climate change play a role, and how likely was this event to occur in the absence of climate change?’ ” Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini told the Associated Press.

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