Severe storms bring damaging winds, hail to Red River Valley
Updated: 7:04 p.m. | Posted: 4:30 p.m.
Severe thunderstorms on Saturday afternoon produced hurricane-force wind gusts in parts of the Red River Valley of northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota.
The National Weather Service relayed a report of an 84 mph wind gust with trees uprooted near Glyndon, Minn., just east of Moorhead, at about 2:30 p.m. Xcel Energy reported about 800 customers without power in the Glyndon and Felton areas as of 5:15 p.m.
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The Red River Valley Cooperative Power Association and Otter Tail Power Co. also reported power outages in their service areas in northwestern Minnesota.
There was a 75 mph wind gust at the airport in Fargo, N.D., just after 2 p.m. The Weather Service reported wind gusts blew over a camper being towed on Interstate 29 near the 13th Avenue South exit in Fargo at about 2 p.m.
Other wind reports included 62 mph near Gatzke, Minn., 60 mph near Warren, Minn., and 58 mph near Ada, Minn.
There also were reports of quarter-size hail near Gatzke and Viking, both in Marshall County, Minn.
Storms also are possible across the rest of western Minnesota on Saturday night.
Saturday's storms are expected to weaken and fall apart before reaching the Twin Cities, but some rain is possible in the metro area on Sunday.