Storms with lightning and hail hitting upper Midwest with the potential
for strong tornadoes
[April 29, 2025]
By STEVE KARNOWSKI
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Storms with lightning and hail and at least one
observed tornado were moving through the upper Midwest on Monday with
the potential for strong tornadoes.
The National Weather Service said the highest risks — a 4 on a scale of
1 to 5 — were in portions of southern Minnesota, including the
Minneapolis-St. Paul area, northern Iowa and western Wisconsin.
Forecasters had expected two rounds of severe weather, with the
possibility of tornadoes in the EF-2 range or greater.
“The most dangerous period is likely during the late afternoon and
evening when strong tornado potential should be maximized,”
meteorologists at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma,
wrote.
The National Weather Service in the Twin Cities said Monday afternoon
that they had a report of an observed tornado looking west from
Fairmont, Minnesota, which is southwest of Minneapolis.
Pea- to marble-sized hail pelted parts of Faribault County in southern
Minnesota, and rain was heavy, Sheriff Scott Adams said.
“A heavy downpour -- it became extremely dark out,” he said.
The National Weather Service reported receiving multiple reports of
tornadoes near the small town of Winnebago, Minnesota, about 110 miles
(177 kilometers) southwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul. But Adams said the
reports weren’t confirmed and there appeared to be no wind damage as of
Monday evening.
Melissa Dye, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s office in
the Twin Cities, said spotters likely saw “gustnados,” which are small
whirlwinds that form during thunderstorms but are not connected to a
cloud base, as a tornado. She said they can look like tornadoes because
of they kick up dust and debris.
Dye said spotting a tornado would be difficult because they’d be wrapped
by the rain.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul area appeared to largely skirt the worst of the
weather.
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Thunderstorms and rain is expected in the metro area including
downtown Minneapolis, Minn., Monday, April 28, 2025. (Richard
Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP)
“Any severe threat is pretty much done for the metro area,” she said
Monday evening.
She said there is still some storm activity in the Albert Lea area,
just north of the Iowa border.
The Storm Prediction Center said a lesser potential for severe
weather extended as far south as parts of Texas and Oklahoma.
Monday's first round of storms darkened skies over downtown
Minneapolis around 9 a.m. and brought brief heavy rains, but it
triggered no weather warnings as it passed through.
The City of Minneapolis closed its public-facing non-emergency city
facilities, including its main service center, as of 2 p.m. and
activated its emergency operations center.
The Minneapolis, St. Paul and Bloomington school districts were
among several in Minnesota that canceled evening activities ahead of
the storms. Some Iowa schools also closed early for the day or
canceled evening activities.
As severe thunderstorms began popping up in the early afternoon, the
National Weather Service reported 2.8-inch (7 centimeters) hail near
Beaver Creek in southwestern Minnesota. Forecasters issued tornado
watches for almost the entire southern half of Minnesota, plus much
of northern Iowa and western Wisconsin, effective until late
Tuesday.
On Sunday evening, a tornado derailed an empty BNSF coal train west
of Ashby in northwestern Nebraska. Initial reports were that a
tornado measuring more than 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) wide derailed
many of the approximately 130 cars on the train, toppling several
onto their sides. There were no immediate reports of injuries and
the locomotive remained upright, the News Channel Nebraska radio
group reported. It was one of several tornadoes reported in that
part of Nebraska on Sunday evening.
___
AP writer John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this story.
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