Funnel Cloud — Watonwan, Minnesota

2021-08-28 · near Madelia, Watonwan, Minnesota

Event narrative

A trained spotter observed a funnel cloud north of Madelia.

Wider weather episode

A secondary wave of severe thunderstorms developed over southwest Minnesota by the late afternoon of Saturday, August 28th. This area of storms formed a bow-echo that moved from Springfield, east-northeast toward New Ulm, Mankato, and Le Center. The most intense part of the bow-echo occurred at the onset that moved across Brown and Watonwan counties. Several tornadoes were documented. Thousands of acres of corn was flattened due to sustained intense winds. As the storm progressed northeast, the bow-echo segment became disorganized south of the Twin Cities metro area. Another wave of storms that originated over southwest Minnesota during the evening, caused strong winds in Brown County but no damage was reported.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (44.0700, -94.4200)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 971768. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.