Slow-moving thunderstorms drop heavy rains over central Minnesota.
During the evening of August 29, clusters of very slow-moving thunderstorms developed over east central Minnesota and sagged to the south with some storms drifting to the southwest. The storms dropped torrential rains in a hopscotch pattern with one location seeing several inches of rain, with other nearby places seeing very little. Case in point was St. Cloud. Officially at the St. Cloud Airport, located five miles to the southeast of downtown St. Cloud, saw 4.03 inches of rain (2.05 inches in an hour) but downtown St. Cloud saw only about .75 (3/4) of an inch. Other locations that that saw heavy rain were in Benton and southern Mille Lacs County with a volunteer observer east of Milaca seeing 4.7 inches. Street flooding was reported in Foley in Benton County.
There was a vivid lightning show north of the Twin Cities as the storms shifted to the south and then moved over the metro. The Twin Cities International Airport saw 1.61 inches of rain, with 1.27 inches falling on August 29. This was the fifth time it rained one inch or more in a calendar day for August in the Twin Cities and now 2016 shares the August one inch of rain or more record with 2007.
Below is a list of storm reports gathered by the National Weather Service
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY...CORRECTED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN 819 PM CDT MON AUG 29 2016 ..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON... ..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE.... ..REMARKS.. 0755 PM HEAVY RAIN 2 NW FORESTON 45.75N 93.74W 08/29/2016 M2.11 INCH MILLE LACS MN TRAINED SPOTTER . 0752 PM HEAVY RAIN MILACA 45.76N 93.65W 08/29/2016 M4.50 INCH MILLE LACS MN PUBLIC REPORTED BY HAM RADIO OBSERVER IN MORA. HEAVY RAIN REPORTED ON NORTH SIDE OF CITY. 0745 PM FLASH FLOOD MILACA 45.76N 93.65W 08/29/2016 MILLE LACS MN 911 CALL CENTER WATER UP TO CAR BUMPERS IN TOWN. 0742 PM HEAVY RAIN MORA 45.88N 93.29W 08/29/2016 M1.10 INCH KANABEC MN TRAINED SPOTTER . 0734 PM HAIL MILACA 45.76N 93.65W 08/29/2016 M0.75 INCH MILLE LACS MN AMATEUR RADIO