Mostly Lucky: Bow echo and 3 tornadoes leave spotty damage

Whew.

We're breathing a sigh of relief on the MPR Weather Lab tonight. What could have been a lot worse turned out better than expected for many across Minnesota today.

Yes, there was some scattered damage reports and 3 tornadoes did touch down in Minnesota Thursday.

Mark Torello captured this shot of a tornado on the ground near St. James around 4:30pm.

We can thank debris clouds from midday convection that fired over southern Minnesota for keeping the atmosphere partially in check Thursday. If we had managed just an hour or two of sunshine to heat the atmosphere many more tornadic supercells would have erupted, like this one that produced a brief tornado near Gaylord Thursday evening.

Here's a brief rundown on some of the reports. Waseca was one area that saw scattered damage with trees down and a few car windows blown out by large hail.

Thanks to KEYC Meteorologist Collin Oraskovitch for passing these shots along.

Mixed bag weekend

The weekend looks much less severe for the Fishing Opener and Mother's Day. There will be a few hours fo showers, but you'll be able to find some dry and even sunny hours to cast a line or honor Mom.