I’m writing this after I got home around 11:30 p.m., having sat down in our Emergency Operations Center for the second time in three days this week. Around 5:30 p.m. the weather got pretty nasty looking on the RADAR. The storm prediction center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, of all places put our area on notice we were most likely going to get hit by a very substantial storm. The storm cell reached all the way down into Iowa and up well into southern Minnesota by 5:30 p.m.
We called in our weather spotters, and some of our employees who help to staff our Emergency Operations Center and I made a call to Public Works to let them know we might need some help later in the evening.
We watched, as the weather moved toward us, causing funnel clouds and severe storms south of us. As the storm cell neared, it split and moved mostly around us and got stronger as it moved into Scott and LeSueur Counties.
We were lucky. Those north of us were not so lucky. There were reports of some damage to buildings and some homes north and west of us. Fortunately as of this writing, no one was hurt.
Hopefully we will get a break from the weather for an enjoyable 4th of July weekend.