Thunderstorm Wind in Hennepin County, Minnesota

Widespread trees and power lines were blown down between Uptown, Powderhorn and Longfellow neighborhoods in south Minneapolis. Some of the trees were in excess of two feet in diameter.

Two rounds of severe thunderstorms occurred across portions of southern and central Minnesota, between Friday afternoon, June 21st and early Saturday morning, June 22nd. These storms first developed across central South Dakota and moved into west central Minnesota after 4 pm, causing large hail, damaging winds and torrential rainfall.

These storms weakened briefly in central Minnesota, before re-intensifying across east central Minnesota, in the western suburbs of the Twin Cities, and quickly caused widespread damaging winds across the metro area.

Widespread fallen trees and power lines occurred from near Maple Plain, eastward to Medina, Plymouth, Medicine Lake, St. Louis Park and much of Minneapolis. In addition, the Twin Cities airport measured a wind gust of 61 mph, with numerous wind gusts from private home wind sensors of 50 to 60 mph across Minneapolis and St. Paul.

At the height of the storm, approximately 500,000 residents were without power according to Xcel Energy. It wasn't until Thursday, June 27th, that all areas in the Twin Cities had their power restored.

These storms moved into west central Wisconsin but continued to produced high winds and large hail. Severe thunderstorms also developed near Mankato Friday evening, and produced up to golf ball size hail. Another area of severe thunderstorms developed across southwest and west central Minnesota and moved east-southeast across south central Minnesota during the overnight hours.

Due to the severity of this event, 18 Minnesota counties hit by flash flooding and severe storms were declared national disaster by the president of the United States, and were allowed FEMA assisted funds. Of the 18 counties, 12 are in the Chanhassen area: Benton, Douglas, Faribault, Freeborn, Hennepin, McLeod, Morrison, Pope, Sibley, Stearns, Stevens, and Swift. A preliminary estimate pegs the cost of damage to public infrastructure at $17.8 million.