Hot and muggy during day on Monday, storms later
Mother Nature certainly brought a busy night of weather to Minnesota late Sunday. Storms developed eastward across the state and then clumped together into a mesoscale convective complex - that's a big storm often generating strong wind outflow and hail.
There were numerous reports of wind damage and hail in central to southern Minnesota. Most of the wind gusts were in the 55 to 75 m.p.h. range. The larger hail reports were generally 1.5 to 2 inch diameter stones just south of the metro area around the New Prague-Lonsdale-Northfield-Dundas area.
Flash flooding, characterized by rapidly rising water, was produced by heavy rain falling repeatedly as strong storms trained from west to east just south of the Twin Cities. Three to four inches of rain fell around Belle Plaine-Jordan-New Prague-Farmington-Northfield-Cannon Falls-Red Wing. Conditions were ripe for flooding as most of that area had been soaked with rain last week.
The National Weather Service Office in Chanhassen collects and publishes storm reports.
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A remarkable aspect of the late-evening storms was the amount of lightning. Storms observed from Minneapolis had continuous lightning and a deep, non-stop rumble/roar of thunder as they passed over.
Today
Today will be a hot and muggy day. High temperatures will be in the mid 80s to low 90s although cooler to the north. Many dew points will be in the upper 60s to low 70s across southern Minnesota and the metro area.
As far as precipitation is concerned, just a few widely scattered showers and thunderstorms are possible today.
The next significant weather
The next round of thunderstorms will approach Minnesota from the west later tonight and continue tomorrow. Tomorrow will be another hot and humid day. More thunderstorms are likely. The best chance of severe weather will be later tomorrow. The Storm Prediction Center has placed an area through central Minnesota into northwestern Wisconsin in a Slight Risk Area for severe weather on Wednesday.
Looking ahead
Some rain is likely to hang around into Wednesday, but we will be enjoying cooler, less steamy weather by then.
Bill Endersen