Heavy thunderstorms produced large hail, gusty winds, and torrential downpours across all but northwestern Minnesota, with localized major flooding around Morris.
The storms formed as a small disturbance and moderately strong winds aloft overspread a very warm and humid air mass. Temperatures in central and southern Minnesota reach the upper 80s to lower 90s F, with dew point temperatures, a measure of total humidity, reaching a muggy 70-75 F at most locations.
The storms got off to an early start, with one-inch diameter hail reported in Aitkin just before 8 AM, and tree damage reported near Buhl. Then a large and intense thunderstorm moved into Lac qui Parle County in far western Minnesota around noon, producing a tornado southwest of Appleton and knocking over many large trees and power poles around Milan in Chippewa County. This storm crawled eastward during the early afternoon and eventually dissipated. The rain-cooled air and cloud cover may have produced a localized boundary that helped reinforce storms that would form just to the north later in the day.
Indeed, the "main event" formed later in the afternoon as an area of storms in west-central Minnesota, only about 75 miles north of the earlier one, merged into one enormous complex and began moving east-southeastward. These storms moved slowly at first, lashing areas near Morris with nearly two hours of heavy rain, large hail, and strong winds. Power poles were snapped near Chokio in Stevens County, and 61 mph winds were reported at the Morris airport, while observers reported hail up to the size of ping pong balls. The torrents of rain led to serious flooding, with submerged roads, some smaller ones reported washed out, basement flooding, and standing water in fields.
The storms then began their march towards the Twin Cities area, producing additional strong wind gusts and large hail reports along the way. Within the Twin Cities, golf ball hail was reported in Plymouth, with many reports of 1 to 1.5" hail elsewhere, especially north of I-94. The airport at Crystal reported a 62 mph wind gust and St. Paul's Holman Field airport reported 66 mph. Power was knocked out to about 85,000 customers across Minnesota (though mostly in the Twin Cities area).
Most areas in Minnesota south of I-94 received a half-inch of rain or more, with about half of that area receiving 1-2 inches. By far the heaviest rainfall was in the flooded areas of west-central Minnesota, particularly in Stevens and eastern Big Stone counties, where observers reported totals of 5-6 inches.
Most of the storms moved out of Minnesota by the early morning hours of Monday July 28th, though the next disturbance began producing new storms shortly thereafter.
July 29, 2025
KAB