Strong Storms Rumbled Through Central Minnesota Saturday

(KNSI) — Severe weather that tore through the St. Cloud area late Saturday morning and early Saturday afternoon dropped torrential rainfall and hail.

The National Weather Service placed western Minnesota and Stearns County under a severe thunderstorm watch early Saturday morning, which was in effect until noon. A tornado watch was issued just before 11:00 a.m. as severe weather exploded when it rolled across the Minnesota South Dakota border.

The National Weather Service fielded several reports of thunderstorm wind gusts over 70 miles an hour near the Glenwood area. Other areas reported wind gusts between 55 and 65 miles an hour. There are reports of downed trees and tree branches in several areas, including Avon, Sauk Centre, Avon, and Forada. Farther west, reports came in of urban and small stream flooding, damage to cornfields, and road signs.

As the storms moved east, they only seemed to intensify, prompting a tornado warning to be issued about 11:25 for Albany, Avon, Freeport, Holdingford, Sartell, and St. Stephen. We received several reports of hail ranging in size from quarters and ping pong balls to limes and tomatoes, cracking windshields, and damaging cars. A tornado warning was also issued for southern Benton and Mille Lacs County as the line marched eastward, impacting Oak Park, Foley, Duelm, Princeton, Pease, Milaca, and Bock. The National Weather Service reported straight line winds near Sartell and potential for hail up to the size of baseballs driven by 70 mile per hour winds near Foley.

The warnings just kept coming in for Sobieski, Swanville, Bowlus, Upsala, Grey Eagle, Burtrum, Sauk Rapids, St. Cloud, and Princeton until the activity moved off to the east.

In the wake of the storms, power outages were reported for thousands of customers in Stearns, Benton, and Sherburne Counties and Morrison and Kandiyohi County. At one point, Meeker Co-Op and Light reported almost every single one of its customers had lost power.

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