Power Outage in Willmar, MN

Periods of heavy snow fell across Kandiyohi County from Tuesday evening, through Wednesday morning. Some of the precipitation turned over to sleet, freezing rain and rain during the evening, before turning back to snow during the morning. Locally 4 to 8 inches of snow fell, with some ice accumulating on trees and power lines.

Trees and power lines toppled.

Several trees were downed in Willmar, including one which fell onto a garage and damaged two cars on Ella Avenue NW. Trees were also downed onto power lines north of Kandiyohi around Diamond Lake, near Lake Florida, in the Raymond area, southwest of Willmar, and north of Prinsburg.

A line of storms that developed across South Dakota, moved eastward into west central, central and east central Minnesota during the late afternoon, and evening hours. Several bow echo segments were indicated on radar, with one producing a tornado between Atwater and Grove City. A few trees and power lines were blown down as this line of storms continued to move eastward across Minnesota. ||There were numerous measured wind gusts in the range of 45 to 55 mph as these storms moved across the state, including 55 mph at the St. Paul airport, 53 mph near Starbuck, and Granite Falls, 51 mph near Clearwater, 49 mph near Clara City, 48 mph at the Minneapolis, St. Paul International Airport, and 47 mph at the Madison airport.

A cluster of thunderstorms developed between Redwood Falls and Willmar during the afternoon of Monday, May 23rd. A few of the storms became severe and dropped nickel to golf ball size hail from south of Willmar, to Buffalo. Even a large tree was blown down in Buffalo. Torrential rainfall also occurred as several waves of thunderstorms moved across the same areas of southern Minnesota. One weather observer measured 3.26 inches of rainfall in less than 3 hours. The local emergency manager had reports of field erosion and standing water around the Howard Lake and Cokato areas. There was also a social media video that showed a part of Wright County receiving large hail and wind damage to power poles.