Severe weather possible in parts of Minnesota

Updated: 2:40 p.m. | Posted: 10:15 a.m.

Rounds of showers and thunderstorms are forecast to continue across much of Minnesota — particularly southern parts of the state — on Saturday afternoon and evening, with a chance of severe weather including large hail, damaging winds, heavy rain and possibly a few tornadoes.

The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch until 10 p.m. Saturday for Dodge, Faribault, Fillmore, Freeborn, Mower, Steele and Waseca counties in southern Minnesota.

Some areas already have seen several inches of rain; a flash flood warning was in effect for parts of Carver County earlier Saturday. That warning expired at 1 p.m., but the threat of flooding will continue for the rest of the day.

The Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch through late Saturday night for parts of southern Minnesota, including Brown, Nicollet, Le Sueur, Rice, Watonwan, Blue Earth, Waseca, Steele, Martin, Faribault, Freeborn, Dodge, Mower and Fillmore counties.

"Slow-moving thunderstorms, with extremely heavy rainfall rates of 2 to 4 inches per hour, will develop through the afternoon and evening as a storm system slowly moves eastward," the Weather Service reported. "... These storms are very efficient and will produce a lot of rainfall in a short period of time."