Stormy Weekend: August 7-8, 2009
It was a rainy weekend over parts of central and southern Minnesota. There were three rounds of rain. Below is a synopsis of the most stormy and rainy weekend of the year (so far) in the Twin Cities.
Round one, during the morning and early afternoon of Friday, August 7.
The first rain event was a thick band of showers and thunderstorms that moved from west to east across much of central and southern Minnesota during the morning and early afternoon hours on Friday. This band dropped anywhere from a half to over an inch of rain. The rain ended by early afternoon in the Twin Cities with some gusty southeast winds. In general this was a good soaking rain.
Round two, late Friday, August 7 to early morning hours of Saturday August 8.
The heaviest rain fell with strong thunderstorms that developed near a warm front draped over southern Minnesota around 10pm Friday, August 7. These storms moved tot he north east and formed an east to west line from Montevideo to the southern half of the Twin Cities. The storms then began drifting east and dropped torrential rains. This caused street flooding in spots including Shakopee. The highest 24 hour total was 6.20 inches in Chaska. This included 1.34 inches that fell in the first wave during the day on Friday, and the 4.86 inches for the late Friday into early Saturday. Other thunderstorms developed in the early morning hours on Saturday to the northwest of the Twin Cities and dumped heavy rain at St. Cloud. The heavy rains were most welcome to areas that were under a moderate or severe drought.
Round three, Saturday night, August 8
For the first time this summer, truly tropical air reached the Twin Cities. The dew point temperature slowly climbed throughout the afternoon on Saturday and was 75 degrees by 8pm, the highest so far for the Twin Cities in 2009. For a time it looked like the risk of severe weather had passed by the Twin Cities. Then at 7pm an tiny cluster of storms developed in Wright County. These storms rapidly intensified and moved east and north east. An EF1 tornado was reported in Minnetrista and moved northeast through Orono and Long Lake and ended over the southwest portion of Plymouth. By 11pm the storms had moved across the St. Croix River into Wisconsin.
The National Weather Service Office in Chanassen posted an story about about the tornadoes in Hennepin County and in West Central Wisconsin.
Below are Local Storm Reports on the August 7-8 storms courtesy the National Weather Service.
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
216 AM CDT MON AUG 03 2009
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0936 PM HAIL SEAFORTH 44.48N 95.33W
08/02/2009 M0.88 INCH REDWOOD MN TRAINED SPOTTER
0936 PM HAIL 3 SW LUCAN 44.38N 95.45W
08/02/2009 M1.00 INCH REDWOOD MN TRAINED SPOTTER
0943 PM HAIL 7 S OLIVIA 44.67N 95.00W
08/02/2009 M1.00 INCH RENVILLE MN TRAINED SPOTTER
0948 PM HAIL 5 SW OLIVIA 44.73N 95.06W
08/02/2009 M1.75 INCH RENVILLE MN TRAINED SPOTTER
0950 PM HAIL 1 S BIRD ISLAND 44.75N 94.89W
08/02/2009 M2.75 INCH RENVILLE MN STORM CHASER
GOLF BALL TO BASEBALL SIZED HAIL STILL COVERING GROUND AT
1010 CDT PM.
1000 PM HAIL 4 WSW CLEMENTS 44.35N 95.13W
08/02/2009 M1.00 INCH REDWOOD MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1002 PM HAIL 3 S CLEMENTS 44.34N 95.05W
08/02/2009 M0.88 INCH REDWOOD MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1005 PM HAIL 5 E OLIVIA 44.76N 94.90W
08/02/2009 M1.75 INCH RENVILLE MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1008 PM HAIL 2 NE HECTOR 44.76N 94.68W
08/02/2009 M2.00 INCH RENVILLE MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1015 PM HAIL 1 N SPRINGFIELD 44.25N 94.98W
08/02/2009 E1.00 INCH BROWN MN CO-OP OBSERVER
1023 PM HAIL HUTCHINSON 44.89N 94.37W
08/02/2009 M0.75 INCH MCLEOD MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1027 PM HAIL 5 S HUTCHINSON 44.82N 94.37W
08/02/2009 M1.00 INCH MCLEOD MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1036 PM HAIL E STEWART 44.72N 94.48W
08/02/2009 M1.00 INCH MCLEOD MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1054 PM HAIL 5 N BROWNTON 44.81N 94.35W
08/02/2009 M1.75 INCH MCLEOD MN LAW ENFORCEMENT
1055 PM FUNNEL CLOUD 2 SSE NORWOOD/YOUNG AME 44.75N 93.90W
08/02/2009 CARVER MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1114 PM HAIL 2 ENE NEW AUBURN 44.68N 94.19W
08/02/2009 M0.75 INCH SIBLEY MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1223 AM HAIL ROBERTS 44.99N 92.55W
08/03/2009 M1.00 INCH ST. CROIX WI TRAINED SPOTTER