Thunderstorm Wind — Nobles, Minnesota

2022-05-11 · near (otg)worthington Arp, Nobles, Minnesota

Event narrative

Several power poles were snapped by strong thunderstorm winds, which downed powerlines across Interstate 90. A car stopped on the roadway to avoid crossing downed powerlines, and was struck from behind by a tractor trailer, resulting in the (indirect) fatality of one vehicle passenger and injury of the other three passengers in the car as well as one from another car.

Wider weather episode

A cluster of early morning storms developed on the nose of steeper mid-level lapse rates and marginally strong elevated wind shear across far southeast South Dakota. Multicell convection produced spotty large hail moving into southwest Minnesota. During the afternoon, convection re-ignited near an advancing mesoscale convective vortex and moved northeast from eastern Nebraska into southwest Minnesota. With greater surface-based instability with a MLCAPE of 2000-3000 J/kg and deep-layer shear of 40-50 knots, storms quickly organized into a QLCS structure and produced hail up to ping-pong ball size, wind to 90 mph, and a few tornadoes across southwest Minnesota. Presidential Disaster Declarations were granted to Cottonwood and Nobles Counties for damages to public infrastructure.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (43.6374, -95.5531)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1031734. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.