Thunderstorm Wind — Kanabec, Minnesota

2019-07-19 · near Ogilvie, Kanabec, Minnesota

Event narrative

There was a large swath of trees and power lines blown down from north of Ogilvie, on the Mille Lacs, and Kanabec County line, southeast to north of Grasston. There was also damage that occurred around Mora.

Wider weather episode

During the late morning, and early afternoon of Friday, July 19th, a surface low moved from northeast South Dakota, eastward across central Minnesota, and into west central Wisconsin by the evening. There was a tight thermal gradient along the surface low/warm front across central Minnesota. During the afternoon, dew points rose to near 80 in the warm sector, with 50s/60s north of the front. This contrast produced MLCAPEs of near 5000 J/kg south of the front boundary. Effective wind shear parameters were very strong with values of 50-70 knots across central Minnesota, and into west central Wisconsin by the late afternoon. This environment allowed for supercells to form which congealed into a bow echo that raced across east central Minnesota, and into west central Wisconsin. Very large hail, damaging straight-line winds, and a few tornadoes occurred with this bow echo.

There was almost a continuous swath of large hail, measured up to golf ball size, that fell from Stevens County, northeast through Pope, Douglas, and Todd Counties before 1230 CST. Damage occurred to cars, windows, and crops along the storm's path. Another severe storm developed west of Todd County, and moved across northern Todd County, and into Morrison County. There were numerous reports of large hail once again with the largest report of baseball size hail near Cushing. There were also reports of trees and power lines down across central and southwest Morrison County.

Most of the damage in Mille Lacs, and Kanabec Counties was associated with straight line winds, but there were a couple reports of large hail. The bow echo intensified as it moved across Kanabec County, into southern Pine and northern Chisago Counties.

The worst damage occurred from near Rush City, southeast into west central Wisconsin. The Chisago County fair had to be closed due to trees and power lines that were blown down throughout the fair grounds.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (45.9306, -93.5104)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 828519. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.