Biggest severe weather event of the season pounds Minnesota

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A rainbow graces the skies near Tracy, Minnesota last night.

MPR photo by Mark Steil.

That was a good one.

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Long-lived supercell thunderstorms hammered central Minnesota Tuesday. The two part event featured tornadoes and funnel clouds on the southern edge, along with a heavy rainfall event to the north. Over 4 inches of rain drenched the Brainerd Lakes area as multiple storm waves moved through central Minnesota.

This was not your average severe weather event for Minnesota. Weather conditions featured an intersecting warm and cool front west of St. Cloud Tuesday. As the heat of the day built up, a strong upper wave ran over the top of the frontal zone, triggering the storms. Your average thunderstorm life cycle is about 30 minutes. The supercell that formed near Spicer Tuesday lasted over 6 hours. After dropping the tornado that caused damage in Spicer and near Green Lake, the same storm went on to produce flooding rains and multiple funnel clouds in St. Cloud.

St. Cloud dodged a bullet last night. The storm was showing rotation on doppler right over the city. It was very close to dropping another tornado similar to the Spicer tornado. That likely would have caused much more widespread damage in St. Cloud.

To the north, several waves of storms battered the Brainerd Lakes and the Bay Lake areas. Flash flooding occurred in those areas with 3 to 6 inches of rain in just a few hours. That's half a summer's rain in one evening. I think it was Mark Twain that said, "It takes a flood to end a drought." Three to six inches of rain will put a dent in drought conditions in those areas.

Here in the Twin Cities most areas got skunked again. The northeast metro got some much needed rainfall, but most other areas stayed dry. Most counties in and near the Twin Cities still have yet to see our first severe weather warnings of the season. At least there's a silver lining.

Look for a chilly end to this week before another nice weekend comes our way.

PH