Prompts winter weather advisories as cold air moves in Friday night

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

The National Weather Service says two of the four confirmed tornadoes that touched down in central Minnesota on Wednesday evening 

One of the EF2 tornadoes followed a 3.2-mile path near Upper Whitefish and Clamshell lakes, west of Crosslake in Crow Wing County, with a maximum width of 700 yards.

The other tracked for 13.1 miles from Wolford in Crow Wing County, north of Crosby, east to Rabbit Lake and then into Aitkin County. It had a maximum width of 200 yards.

Both caused major damage to trees, power lines and buildings. The Weather Service said the tornado near Crosslake tore more than half the roof deck from a few homes, and residents “reported a nearly hour-long storm surge of 1 to 2 feet from Upper Whitefish Lake.” The tornadoes also flipped boats and RVs.

There were no reports of serious injuries or fatalities from the storms.

Storm survey crews also confirmed weaker EF0 tornado touchdowns near Glen in Aitkin County, and near Wright in Carlton County.

severe storms across central and northern Minnesota

 on Wednesday evening that also produced very large hail.

Cleanup underway after severe storms in central and northern Minnesota

The National Weather Service said Friday that it’s still reviewing damage reports, photos and video to assess Wednesday’s storms and possible additional tornado touchdowns.

Wednesday night’s storms also caused significant damage in areas from St. Cloud and Sartell north toward Little Falls and Camp Ripley.

Residents and utility crews continued working on storm cleanup on Friday. As of Friday morning, only a few dozen homes and businesses across central and northern Minnesota remained without power — down from more than 15,000 in the immediate aftermath of the storms.

 that its crews had to replace more than 16 broken utility poles, in addition to damage to power lines.

Minnesota News

Disasters

Weather and Climate News

NewsPartners

Homepage

Andrew Krueger

Author

Estelle Timar-Wilcox

The National Weather Service says two of the four confirmed tornadoes that touched down in central Minnesota on Wednesday evening were rated EF2, with maximum winds of 115 to 120 mph.

National Weather Service confirms EF2 tornadoes touched down in Minnesota on Wednesday

Go Deeper.

Like this?