Thunderstorm Wind in Benton County, Minnesota

A severe downburst wind event occurred from Sauk Rapids, north and northeast across a large swath of central and northern Benton County. Hundreds of trees were toppled, broken or pushed over. Many trees landed on houses, sheds and vehicles.

A very hot and humid day occurred across southern Minnesota, and western Wisconsin Friday, July 1st. A frontal boundary held across the southwest part of the state, then northeast across east central Minnesota, and into portions of west central and northern Wisconsin.

During the afternoon, a large thunderstorm complex developed across southeast South Dakota, along this frontal boundary and moved into far southwest Minnesota. Several long duration supercells and bow echoes occurred along a path from the southwest, to the northeast across southern Minnesota, and into west central Wisconsin.

Several of the storms developed tornadoes near Redwood Falls, and again around St. Cloud, Minnesota. In addition to the tornadoes, severe straight line winds occurred. Plus, the development of the rear inflow notch, allowed for the strong winds to continue beyond the main bow echo across many areas of southern Minnesota.

Widespread damage occurred with this system along with hundreds of large trees blown down and structural damage to homes and barns. Widespread reports of hail with each storm, along with a few reports of baseball and softball size hail.

Several communities lost power with over 90,000 reported outages throughout southern and central Minnesota.