Power Outage in Lakeville, MN

Several trees and power lines were blown down between Lakeville, and Farmington.

A few power lines were blown down in Mendota Heights.

A few power poles were blown down in South St Paul.

There were several reports of strong winds that were associated with an outflow boundary from thunderstorms. These winds produced downed power lines and trees from Eagan, Apple Valley, Rosemount, Lakeville to Farmington.

The local emergency manager reported that both South St. Paul, and West St. Paul had multiple trees blown down. Two trees fell on cars in West St. Paul and there were multiple power lines down.

The local emergency manager reported that both South St. Paul, and West St. Paul had multiple trees blown down. Two trees fell on cars in West St. Paul and there were multiple power lines down.

Trees and power lines were blown down in South St. Paul.

A severe squall line produced significant tree and power line damage across Dakota County from near the Scott, Dakota County border, through Lakeville, Burnsville, Apple Valley, Rosemount, and to Coates. Numerous large trees and tree limbs were blown down with some power outages. A few private weather stations measured wind speeds of 45 to 55 mph. One private weather station had a measured wind gust of 61 knots in Lakeville.

A severe squall line produced significant tree and power line damage across Dakota County from near the Scott, Dakota County border, through Lakeville, Burnsville, Apple Valley, Rosemount, and to Coates. Numerous large trees and tree limbs were blown down with some power outages. A few private weather stations measured wind speeds of 45 to 55 mph. One private weather station had a measured wind gust of 61 knots in Lakeville.

Several wind sensors across Dakota County had measured winds of 40 to 45 mph, with gusts over 50 mph at times. There were reports of downed trees and power lines, with areas of power outages.

A large tree was blown down, which took out power lines along Yankee Doodle Road in Eagan.

A few large trees and power lines were blown down around Lakeville.

Several large tree limbs were snapped in half, along with some power poles near Interstate 494 in South St. Paul.

Several large trees and power lines were blown down near Lakeville, Minnesota.

Wind speeds increased significantly during the afternoon, with sustained winds averaging 40 mph across the county for several hours. Based on several mesonet weather stations, and observations across the county, a few gusts were over 50 mph during the late afternoon, and again around midnight. In addition, several trees blew down on a home in South St. Paul, Minnesota, with power lines blown down in West St. Paul, Minnesota, around 8:00 PM CST. There was a measured peak wind gust of 51 mph at Castle Rock, Minnesota, at 9:10 PM CST, and a peak wind gust of 52 mph at Rosemount, Minnesota at 6:50 PM CST.

Trees down on power lines.

Several trees were downed onto power lines. A gas station canopy was also damaged.

Power lines were downed in the 240th, Lilleyheight, and Highway 61 areas.

Large trees were downed in a corridor stretching from the southern edge of Lake Marion to the southern half of Lakeville. A few trees fell onto homes, cars, and power lines. City officials reported the loss of 50 boulevard trees and damage to limbs on hundreds of others in town. Seventeen large trees were lost in Aronson and Antlers Park and at the Lakeville Area Arts Center. A 10-foot-tall white fence was blown down.

A line of thunderstorms developed late Tuesday morning across southwest Minnesota and quickly moved eastward over southern Minnesota, and into west central Wisconsin by mid afternoon. One severe storm became severe near Waldorf and caused sporadic wind damage across rural Waseca County. ||Another strong storm became severe east of Mankato as strong wind shear and ample elevated instability produced large hail near Cannon Falls. There were numerous reports of small hail from northeast of Mankato, through Faribault and the Red Wing area. The largest hail stone fell near Northfield and was measured at 1.50 inches in diameter. ||There was also significant damage to areas southwest, south and southeast of the city of Faribault. Damage included numerous trees down, power lines down, power line poles sheared off, trees on power lines, roofs partially off houses, some sheds, pole barns destroyed and pieces blown over long distances. In addition to the wind damage, straight-line winds caused 9 semi trucks to be blown over on I-35, just south of Faribault.

A storm system began to strengthen late Monday night across the central plains in advance of a powerful southern jet stream that intensified over the central part of the country on Tuesday. The center of this storm moved from northern Missouri, northeast across the Midwest and Great Lakes region by late Tuesday night. ||A large area of light to moderate precipitation developed across southern and central Minnesota early Tuesday morning and moved northeast while heavier precipitation started to develop across south central, and into east central Minnesota, and adjacent west-central Wisconsin Tuesday morning. This secondary area of higher reflectivity was in response to the deepening southern jet and associated upper level forcing. This led to moderate, to occasional heavy snowfall across parts of south central, southeast, and east-central Minnesota. A band of 4 to 8 inches of snow fell across the southeastern Twin Cities metro area.||Some of the higher snowfall totals across the east-southeastern Twin Cities metro area include:||8.8 inches near Afton. |7.0 inches in Hastings. |6.5 inches in Rosemount.

A small complex of storms that moved out of northeast South Dakota late Saturday morning caused a concentrated area of straight-line wind damage. The Canby, Minnesota airport measured a wind gust of 72 mph. These type of wind speeds continued across portions of Yellow Medicine and Lac Qui Parle counties where hundreds of trees and power lines were blown down. There was another wind gust of 68 mph at the Department of Transportation road sensor (Near Hanley Falls, MN) that went offline as the gust was recorded. ||The worst area occurred in the city of Granite Falls where winds tore open two roofs and allowed water to pour through ventilation ducts into classrooms and hallways, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the Yellow Medicine East School District building. The Granite Fun restaurant and golf course also sustained damage with 55 to 60 trees blown down. Due to the extensive damage, the city of Granite Falls declared a state of emergency. ||Although wind damage occurred east of Granite Falls, mainly between Sacred Heart to Renville, this storm weakened as it moved eastward toward the western part of the Twin Cities.||A secondary area of storms developed across south central Minnesota during the mid-late afternoon near New Ulm, and produced another area of significant wind damage eastward toward Cannon Falls, and Red Wing. There was a swath of tree damage around Cannon Falls where one house lost its roof, with other having minor roof damage.

A powerful storm system that brought blizzard conditions to a wide area of southern and central Minnesota, as well as adjacent west central Wisconsin, developed early Saturday morning in the southern Rockies. The storm moved out into the Plains of Kansas Saturday morning, February 23th, and tracked northeast to northern Missouri by the afternoon. The storm kept steady during this time frame, but intensified rapidly during the evening and overnight period of Saturday and Sunday, February 23rd and 24th. The storm dropped 20 millibars from Saturday evening, through Sunday morning as it moved from northern Missouri, to the northern Great Lakes. ||Snow began in southern Minnesota Saturday afternoon February 23th, and ended Sunday morning. The heaviest snowfall occurred from south of Blue Earth (Faribault County), to Faribault, and Hastings in Minnesota, and to River Falls, and Rice Lake in west central Wisconsin. These areas received between 6 and 12 inches of snow, with localized areas of 12+ inches.||Roads began to close in south central Minnesota before 10 PM CST, Saturday, February 23rd. As winds increased during the night, and Sunday morning, several other roads, including I-35 & I-90 closed due to impassable conditions. The road closures extended northward across portions of southwest, west central and southeast Minnesota as winds increased and snow drifted over the road Sunday. Several social media pictures indicated that snow drifts were as high as 20 feet in some locations in southern Minnesota. Even military vehicles that are made for deep snow, became stuck.||Wind speeds started to increase late Saturday night, and peaked Sunday, and slowly subsided Sunday afternoon and evening as the storm system moved out of the region. However, some roads in south central Minnesota remained closed through Monday as snow plows reported drifts in excess of 20 feet.||During the height of the storm, the Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management tallied approximately 600 stranded travelers who were rescued off of snow-filled ditches, drifted shut roads, and snowbanks. ||Troopers and the Minnesota Department of Transportation officials worked near 24 hours straight to get stranded motorists out of the Straight River rest stop along I-35 south of Owatonna. In Blue Earth County, 150 vehicles were reported off the roads, some were rescued. Seven vehicles were reported off the road in Red Wing. In Freeborn County, crews worked to rescue nine people from two trains stuck on tracks. As individuals were rescued, numerous shelters were opened across southern Minnesota. ||The following was the breakdown of the rescues across southern Minnesota;||Brown County: 5.|Chippewa County: 21.|Cottonwood County: 8.|Freeborn County: 91 (including from stranded trains).|Le Sueur County: 46.|Renville County: 33.|Rice County: 30. |Steele County: 200-plus. |Stevens County: 12. |Swift County: 20.|Watonwan County: 10.

A complex of thunderstorms that developed in South Dakota Monday morning, September 17th, quickly moved eastward into western and southern Minnesota during the afternoon. Most of the damaging winds were associated with the leading edge of a strong outflow boundary that caused numerous trees and power lines to be blown down from Eagan, Apple Valley, Rosemount, Lakeville and Farmington in Dakota County southward to Northfield, Lonsdale and Morristown in Rice County.||Behind this leading edge of strong winds, thunderstorms developed, but most of these were non-severe and producing occasional gusty winds and heavy rainfall. One storm did produced a 51 knot wind gust at the New Ulm airport from thunderstorms later in the afternoon.

The afternoon of Tuesday, May 29th, thunderstorms began to develop across southwest Minnesota, and move northward. Most of the storms were sub-severe with occasional gusts of 40 to 50 mph noted on airport ASOS/AWOS sites. Other thunderstorms began to develop across south central Minnesota and moved northward toward the Twin Cities area. ||By the mid to late afternoon, temperatures rose into the 90s with CAPE values of 1500-2000 J/Kg. Due to weak wind shear, most of the storms were outflow dominant, but occasional severe wind gusts occurred with the stronger cores. Two storms produced significant wind damage near Geneva, north of Albert Lea, Minnesota, and Hutchinson, Minnesota. A turkey barn was destroyed near Geneva, and three people were injured but recovered from their injuries. Around Hutchinson, there were numerous reports of downed trees and power lines. Some of the trees caused damage to homes. The local emergency manager in McLeod County determined that there were about 5-6 houses in Hutchinson that received structural damage from trees.||In addition, McLeod County declared a state of emergency on May 30, 2018 as a result of these high winds. An initial damage assessment was conducted and determined that there was about $54,000 in estimated public assistance damages.||Other storms produced an occasional hail stone up to quarter size. However, most of the storms were only producing dime to nickel size hail with wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph.

Several storms moved across southern Minnesota during the mid afternoon hours of Wednesday, July 19th. A few of the storms bowed out from south of Redwood Falls to Mankato, and into Owatonna and Northfield. There were numerous reports of downed trees and power lines with some corn fields flattened in southern Brown County near Comfrey.

A very unstable atmosphere combined with ample wind shear to result in the development of storms with large hail, severe winds, a tornado, and very heavy rainfall from Alexandria to Lake Mille Lacs...then southeast along Interstate 94. ||Initially, a severe thunderstorm developed near Fergus Falls during the afternoon of Sunday, July 12th. As the afternoon progressed, several severe thunderstorms developed south toward Wheaton, then spread east-southeast toward Alexandria. One severe storm moved rapidly eastward across the Todd, Wadena county line and eventually produced a tornado and widespread straight-line wind damage. This tornado moved from Wadena County and into Todd County, destroying a barn south of Aldrich and causing numerous downed trees and power lines. The tornado was accompanied by damaging rear flank downdraft and downburst winds, and the same storm produced wind damage in northwest Morrison County. ||Severe storms moved into the area west of Alexandria and produced winds greater than 80 mph in some locations. Near Brandon, there was structural damage to a large shed, a large pontoon boat was flipped on Maple Lake, and there were numerous downed trees and power lines. ||Severe storms merged in west central and central Minnesota and then developed more into a line of storms and produced periodic downed trees, power lines, and occasional estimated winds of 60-70 mph as the storms moved southeast along Interstate 94 and into the Twin Cities metro area. Damage was not as widespread after it moved out of central Minnesota and into east central Minnesota, due to less wind shear and instability.

During the early morning hours of Monday, June 22nd, a complex of thunderstorms (classified by some as a weak derecho event) developed across western South Dakota and moved rapidly eastward into southwest Minnesota before daybreak. Several bow-echo segments and a few isolated storms ahead of the main thunderstorm complex affected a large area along and south of the Minnesota River Valley, and in the southern suburbs of the Twin Cities between 4 am and 6 am LST. ||Initially, a line of thunderstorms that bowed out in far southern Minnesota, caused numerous downed trees, power lines, and some structural damage to outbuildings and homes as winds of 60 to 70 mph moved across the area between 4 am and 6 am LST. ||There were isolated severe storms that developed ahead of the main line and moved northeast across south central and into the southern suburbs of the Twin Cities. Golf ball size hail was reported west of Lakeville before sunrise.

Thunderstorms began to develop across south central Minnesota during the afternoon of Sunday, May 19th. These storms started to accelerate northward near Owatonna, southeast to Blooming Prairie where the first report of damage was reported northwest of the town. As these storms started to accelerate to the north-northeast, several bow-echo type thunderstorm structures moved across east central Minnesota, and into west central Wisconsin during the early evening. Reports of 60 mph winds, trees blown down, and power outages occurred from these lines of storms. In addition, heavy rainfall occurred in portions of south central and east central Minnesota, with minor street flooding in the Twin Cities Metro Area.

A very unusual snow event unfolded across portions of south central Minnesota, as well as west central Wisconsin on the evening of Wednesday, May 1st. Snowfall amounts topped over a foot of snow, with locally higher amounts in a small band near Ellendale, Blooming Prairie, Owatonna, and Goodhue, Minnesota. ||This system was highly unusual due to the fact that May snowfall amounts average less than an inch. A strong Canadian air mass for early May allowed for critical temperatures to lower enough to produce snow across south central and east central Minnesota during the late afternoon and early evening of Wednesday May 1st. ||A strong surge of moisture from the gulf interacted with the cold air mass to produce very heavy snowfall from Wednesday evening, through Thursday morning, before tapering off after 6 am. Snowfall rates were as high as 1-2 inches per hour during the height of the storm. A local CoCoRaHS observer southwest of Ellendale in Steele County, Minnesota, had a record 3 day snowfall report of 17.3 inches between May 1st, to May 3rd. This is a state record for May for a three day total. Ellendale's May monthly total also was 17.3 inches and this falls just short of Minnesota's all-time monthly May snowfall record of 17.8 inches set in Virginia (St. Louis County) in 1954.||Due to the heavy snowfall and high liquid water content, large tree branches broke off and caused damage to power lines, along with numerous power outages.

A record breaking day occurred across the Upper Midwest as temperatures soared into the 60s and 70s across southern Minnesota during the afternoon of Saturday, November 10th. Thunderstorms developed across eastern Nebraska late in the day, and moved northeast across southern Minnesota during the evening. A powerful low level jet of 65 knots developed ahead of a strong cold front late Saturday evening. This low level jet combined with ample instability to create several lines of thunderstorms across southern Minnesota. One line of thunderstorms moved through the southern and eastern metro area of the Twin Cities, and produced four EF-0 tornadoes, along with damaging straight line winds. One tornado moved through the Burnsville area, the second moved through Eagan, the third occurred near Lilydale, and the fourth hit Mahtomedi and Grant. In addition to the tornadoes, there was a long path of damaging straight line winds that caused numerous large trees to blow down onto houses, cars and other public and private structures. These were the latest Minnesota tornadoes in a calendar year in the Storm Prediction Center database (which began in 1950), although there may have been one later tornado on Nov 16, 1931 (but records of tornadoes were not maintained before 1950).

A large cluster of thunderstorms that formed across the eastern Dakotas, moved eastward and developed a long-lived bow echo that moved across southern Minnesota during the evening of Sunday June 17th. Numerous trees, power lines, barns and roofs were damaged or destroyed across a large portion in southern Minnesota.||Winds were clocked at 78 mph at the Appleton Airport, and knocked down power lines, tore open a machine shed on a farm place north of Appleton, and twisted the foundation for a grain dryer, snapping the liquid propane line to it. Five power poles along Minnesota Highway 7 just north of Appleton were toppled, knocking out power to rural areas and about �� of Appleton for two to three hours.||In Lac Qui Parle County, the winds tore metal roofing off a portion of a building in Madison, and snapped small tree branches in town.||In eastern Kandiyohi County, the roof of a shed at the Central Lakes Cooperative just outside of Atwater was torn off and a turkey barn on Highway 12 was damaged. Highway crews used snowplows to move numerous branches from State Highway 12 in Atwater, and power was affected in five substations in the region, particularly the one in Atwater.||The western and northwestern portions of Meeker County were hit hard with severe damage around Grove City, where at least 14 buildings were damaged, including six turkey barns, sheds, grain bins and one residence with extensive roof damage. The Meeker Cooperative said more than 30 power poles were lost and numerous lines downed because of wind and falling trees. The athletic fields at the High School in Grove City were damaged, with football bleachers flipped over onto the field and a dugout damaged on the baseball field. A section of State Highway 4 in Meeker County was shut down due to debris on the road.||Golf ball sized hail and some two inches in diameter were reported in Le Sueur, Rice and Goodhue counties but no major damage was reported.||In addition to the severe winds and hail, very heavy rainfall occurred, especially in the communities of Willmar, Cannon Falls, and Jordan. All three areas reported rainfall of more than 3 inches, with led to flooding. Transportation officials closed Highway 20 near Cannon Falls and Highway 50 near Miesville Monday morning due to flooding. The flooding damaged roads, bridges, utilities, buildings and recreation areas. Preliminary damage assessments revealed more than 5 million dollars in costs and damages.||Wind storms and flooding during the period June 14-21 led to Dakota, Goodhue, Kandiyohi, Meeker, Rice and Sibley counties being among those Minnesota counties designated disaster areas by presidential declaration on July 6, 2012.

Round two of two powerful winter storms plagued the upper Midwest in less than 48 hours as another fast moving system brought substantial snowfall, low temperatures, blizzard conditions and dangerously cold wind chills values.

Gradient winds gusting up to 45 MPH downed trees and branches in McLeod, Goodhue, and Dakota counties. In McLeod County power lines were damaged in 4 locations across Hutchinson. One downed power line started a brush fire just north of town along Highway 15. In Goodhue County a 30 foot tall tree was downed along East 11th Street in Zumbrota. In Dakota County 1000 customers lost power after branches fell onto power lines in Hastings.

A strong surface low pressure system moved out of the southwestern US and into north central Minnesota by the early afternoon on the 7th. This system produced numerous wind gusts in the 50 to 75 mph range across portions of southern Minnesota. The highest measured wind to be reported was 79 mph at Fairmont (Martin County). Other strong gusts that were measured include 71 mph at St. Clair (Blue Earth County), 69 mph at Waseca (Waseca County), 64 mph at Owatonna (Steele County), and 61 mph at Faribault (Rice County). Some damages of note include 30 homes with shingle damage in Mankato (Blue Earth Co.), Semi trailers blown over near Eagle Lake (Blue Earth County) and Goodhue (Goodhue County), roof off a barn near Cleveland (Le Sueur County), and a railroad cross arm blown over on power lines in St. James (Watonwan County). Strong winds estimated at around 70 mph (by the Ellendale Eagle newspaper) toppled a 45,000 bushel bin at the Cannon Valley Co-op Elevator in Ellendale (Steele County). A one hundred foot section of a turkey house roof in Lemond Township (Steele County), was torn away by strong winds. The Maple River school and bus garage in Minnesota Lake (Blue Earth County) incurred roof damage. Two fifty foot tall, WFS 50,000 bushel capacity empty grain bins were torn down near Mapleton in Blue Earth County. A large barn was destroyed, along with the Walters Liquor store building in or near Kiester (Faribault County).