June 16, 2009: West Central Minnesota
The first flash flood event of 2009 was on June 16, 2009. While most of the rain was welcome, especially over drought-stricken east central Minnesota, there was too much rain over a small portion of west central Minnesota in Wilkin County. The highest total found in Wilkin County was 6.88 inches in Mitchell Township. Some basement and flooding of roads was reported in parts of Wilkin County and nearby Abercrombie, North Dakota.
August 7-8, 2009: Central Minnesota
The second flood event of the year came in three waves during the stormy weekend of August 7-8, 2009. The heaviest rain fell with strong thunderstorms that developed near a warm front draped over southern Minnesota around 10pm Friday, August 7. These storms moved tot he north east and formed an east to west line from Montevideo to the southern half of the Twin Cities. The storms then began drifting east and dropped torrential rains. This caused street flooding in spots including Shakopee. The highest 24 hour total was 6.20 inches in Chaska. This included 1.34 inches that fell in the first wave during the day on Friday, and the 4.86 inches for the late Friday into early Saturday. Other thunderstorms developed in the early morning hours on Saturday to the northwest of the Twin Cities and dumped heavy rain at St. Cloud. The heavy rains were most welcome to areas that were under a moderate or severe drought.
August 19-20, 2009: East Central Minnesota
The third flood event of 2009 was in east central Minnesota on August 19-20. A 50 mile wide band of one to two inch rainfall fell from Worthington through the Twin Cities, There was a two to three inch band north of the twin Cities Metro area to north of Duluth. Duluth had 2.89 inches of rain on August 19. The heaviest rain fell over Pine and Kanabec Counties, with the highest total reported so far by a volunteer network gage is 5.49 inches at Askov in Pine County. For areas in the northern Twin Cities, this rain helped alleviate the ongoing drought conditions.