Hail — Watonwan, Minnesota

2025-04-28 · near St James, Watonwan, Minnesota

Wider weather episode

Strong to severe thunderstorms had developed across a surface cold front that moved east across Minnesota during the afternoon hours of April 28th. Increased southerly moisture transport from a +50kt low-level jet had reached as far north as the Twin Cities metro which helped destabilize the environment. A few supercells were able to develop and produce hail mainly quarter size to ping-pong ball size although the largest hail stone was golf ball size six miles south of Owatonna.

This line of storms also produced two tornadoes in Rice and Goodhue Counties which causing heavy damage to several semi-and tanker trucks, collapsing building walls and a few farm outbuildings. Maximum estimated tornadic wind speeds were 110 mph.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (43.9800, -94.6300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1253909. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.