Thunderstorm Wind — Beltrami, Minnesota

2025-06-20 to 2025-06-21 · near Solway, Beltrami, Minnesota

Event narrative

A ground survey and high resolution satellite confirmed a swath of destructive straight-line winds estimated between 80-120 mph occurred across southern Beltrami County. The swath started in Clearwater County and continued east across southern Beltrami County and northern Hubbard County, and was approximately 30 miles long. The widest part of the swath was approximately 12 miles wide from just north of Bemidji to its southernmost point in northern Hubbard County. There was approximately 143,838 acres of southern Beltrami County impacted with widespread tree damage within this single swath. Highest impacted areas extend from near the US Highway 2 and Division Street West intersection, through downtown Bemidji, and through southern and eastern areas of Lake Bemidji. Extensive and significant tree damage was noted within this swath. While widespread tree damage occurred across this 30 mile long swath, the most significant tree damage was within a mile swath beginning south of Wilton and extending about 4 miles east of Lake Bemidji. Such widespread and significant tree damage made numerous roads inaccessible, hampering recovery efforts and trapping people at locations like Lake Bemidji State Park. Some trees that were downed are reported to be 100 to 200 years old. As a result of extensive tree damage, widespread and long duration power outages occurred for over 50,000 reported accounts, some locations lasting more than 6 days after the event within Beltrami County near the Bemidji area. Fallen trees also resulted in vehicular and structural damage. Widespread structural damage from destructive winds alone also occurred to residential and commercial buildings, government buildings, the Sanford Center Arena, and Bemidji State University. This includes, but is not limited to, completely destroyed outbuildings and garages, roofs damaged or completely destroyed, and numerous instances of broken windows. Reports of damage to aircraft and airport buildings received at the Bemidji International Airport. Media relayed that 90 percent of Bemidji State University buildings suffered some form of damage. NWS storm survey teams did not find definitive evidence of tornadic circulation, rather they found damage indicative of destructive straight line winds.

Wider weather episode

During the evening of Friday, June 20th into the early morning hours of June 21st, much of the region was affected by severe weather. A powerful line of severe thunderstorms categorized as a derecho, which tracked across much of the region, including northwest Minnesota, brought widespread straight line wind damage. After the derecho passed through the region, there was a period of prolonged destructive winds that affected portions of central and east central North Dakota, as well as adjacent portions of Minnesota. This was a unique event due to the long duration of significant winds that followed the derecho.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (47.4132, -95.1630)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1276979. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.