It unleashed the most hurricane-force wind gusts of any storm since at least 2014. Tornadoes carved paths in places they never had before in a December, like western Iowa and Minnesota. Fires erupted. Walls of dust turned day to night. Wednesday’s wind storm, which blasted areas from New Mexico to Michigan, was the second historic extreme weather event to wallop the Lower 48 states this week, among an onslaught this year.