Hail — Le Sueur, Minnesota

2022-05-19 · near Le Center, Le Sueur, Minnesota

Wider weather episode

A significant hail event occurred during the daytime hours of May 19th, 2022 across Southeast-Central Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. A multicellular convective mode advanced in two waves with the first wave occurring through the morning hours in Southern MN, while the second wave produced a long-track supercell over the Twin Cities metro and Central Wisconsin. Both waves produced significant hail and damaging wind gusts. The synoptic setup included weak ridging and zonal flow in the Upper Midwest giving way to a deepening trough in the Pacific Northwest. A cold front was advancing eastward through the Dakotas. Over Iowa, a northward advancing warm front coupled with steep lapse rates in the mid levels (7.5-8C/km) were able to drive development initially at the MN/IA border and eventually farther north into the Metro, then eastward. Upper-air soundings depicted a marginal environment for Supercell development with 50-60kt 0-6km shear and an elevated area of 1200 J/kg MUCAPE in the mid-levels. The SPC issued threat level for the day was slight to enhanced risk with most attention given to a significant hail potential.

The storms that developed in the mid-late afternoon produced countless hailstones across the Twin Cities metro area, and into west central Wisconsin by the late afternoon. Beyond the typical 1 inch diameter hailstones, there were several hailstones up to 2 inches in diameter that fell over Washington County. A few other large hailstones fell over Le Sueur, Dakota and Goodhue Counties of southern Minnesota.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (44.3900, -93.7300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1016649. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.