Power Outage in Waseca, MN

Reports of sporadic wind damage occurred from near the Waldorf area, northeast to rural areas of Janesville, hitting a few outbuildings. One broken power pole was reported north of Waseca.

In addition to the large hail stone, there was a power pole blown down in Waseca.

Several waves of precipitation occurred across the county with heavy snow at the start, with a mixture of sleet, rain and snow during the overnight hours before transitioning to mainly light snow, drizzle, and freezing drizzle Wednesday, and Thursday. Snowfall totals averaged 6 to 8 inches across the county. ||The other significant weather element was the combination of high winds and ice coated trees and power lines. This led to widespread downed tree limbs, and power poles.

A NWS storm survey, plus areal footage of drone and satellite data, concluded that an EF0 tornado started east of Waseca, and tracked northeast for 3.9 miles until moving into Steele County. This tornado tracked mainly through corn and soy bean fields, and occasionally damaging a few power lines and power poles. The damage was consistent with EF0 damage with maximum wind speeds of 85 mph and a width of 250 yards.

Several trees and power poles were blown down.

Several large trees were blown down around the town of Waseca, with power outages.

Many large trees and power poles were snapped off from south to north across the city of Waseca. Also, a large grain bin was destroyed north of Waseca.

Power lines were blown down near Waseca, Minnesota.

Numerous trees and power lines were blown down around Waseca, Minnesota. A few trees fell on homes in Waseca.

Power pole down.

A tree was downed onto a power line on County Road 4 near Wilton Bridge.

Two trees up to 10 inches in diameter were downed. A power line was downed onto Elm Avenue.

A line of thunderstorms that developed in western Iowa Sunday afternoon, moved rapidly northeast across north central Iowa, and into south central Minnesota during the early evening. There were reports of large limbs blown down near Blue Earth, and power lines blown down near New Richland. There were reports of tornadoes from the public, but dozens of trained spotters across the area later stated there was no rotation at cloud base. Pictures and video also showed the clouds were depicting outflow. Therefore it was determined that the public reports were of gustnadoes, which are not tornadoes.