Flood — Cook, Minnesota

2022-05-12 to 2022-05-13 · near Lutsen, Cook, Minnesota

Event narrative

Heavy rainfall led to the Poplar River becoming swollen and raging. Trees and other debris significantly damaged two covered bridges near the mouth of the river at the Lutsen Resort. The older of the two bridges was built in 1930 with the other dating from the 1950s. The resort owners have vowed to rebuild the bridges. Additionally, hundreds of trees were wiped out by the water as well.

Wider weather episode

A low pressure system moved northward from the Central Plains to the Northern Plains on May 12th and lifted a warm front across the Northland bringing two rounds of storms to the region. The first round during the afternoon hours were prolific hail producing storms with the largest hail stones being ping pong ball sized. Another round of storms arrived during the early evening hours and contained strong winds that moved through the Brainerd Lakes area. A maximum gust of 61 mph was recorded at the Brainerd Airport leading to widespread tree damage in the area. As storms continued overnight, heavy rainfall along the North Shore led to Flash Flooding in Lake and Cook counties with numerous road washouts reported.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (47.6383, -90.7087)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1033482. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.