The Minnesota Weather Thread (Minneapolis: neighborhood, deal, areas)

[audadvnc]

Today is about perfect! The lilacs are in bloom, the trees are filling out, everything smells great.

[Ghengis]

Well, we needed the rain.

[audadvnc]

Well - that was exciting! We just had a tornado blow by a few blocks away.

Around 2:45 this afternoon, I was driving on 94 toward the Hwy 55 exit in downtown Mpls, and saw this big, slate gray cloud moving fast over North Mpls, with tornado sirens going off. Looking to the west from downtown, I was seeing city blocks disappearing behind sheets of rain. After getting off the highway and into my end of town, I drove into the bizness end of the storm - high winds, and "wet out" conditions. Big fallen branches on some the local streets, blocking traffic. And on Broadway, the traffic lights were out at Emerson, and Irving.

I called 911 to inform them that lights were out, and was greeted by "Brrrng....brrrng...brrrng..." They picked up on the 8th ring, speaking fast. I told them the situation. The dispatcher took my note, said, "it's like that all over town", and hung up. She was busy.

I'm home, my block looks just fine. But a few blocks away, whole boulevards of big trees are down across the roads and through people's houses. Mpls has set up an EMS headquarters at 26th and Penn Ave, almost spitting distance from me. Lots of sirens, lots of downed power lines (don't trip on one of those, they're hot!).

All in all, it looks like a good time to stay home.

[golfgal]

This is a user submitted photo to Fox 9 online:

http://media2.myfoxtwincities.com//photo/2011/05/22/Sheridon_20110522164628_640_480.JPG (broken link)

[northstar22]

Wow. Urban tornadoes are pretty rare. I hope everyone is OK.

[DirtMagurt]

Originally Posted by northstar22

Wow. Urban tornadoes are pretty rare.

This is really turning out to be a weird year nationwide in that regard.

As an aside, why is it that every tornado that comes through this area seems to track down 394 for a minute and then head northeast? I've been here for years and can't recall a single touchdown south of 394 while Anoka, Blaine, etc. get repeatedly clobbered.

[vcvc]

Originally Posted by DirtMagurt

This is really turning out to be a weird year nationwide in that regard.

As an aside, why is it that every tornado that comes through this area seems to track down 394 for a minute and then head northeast? I've been here for years and can't recall a single touchdown south of 394 while Anoka, Blaine, etc. get repeatedly clobbered.

It's true. Seems the northwest metro for the most part are the ones having to deal with this stuff year after year. I'm talking north of 394 and west of 35W. The one exception I can think of is Hugo.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by DirtMagurt

This is really turning out to be a weird year nationwide in that regard.

As an aside, why is it that every tornado that comes through this area seems to track down 394 for a minute and then head northeast? I've been here for years and can't recall a single touchdown south of 394 while Anoka, Blaine, etc. get repeatedly clobbered.

They have happened, but it does seem like tornados tend to follow certain paths or hit certain areas more frequently. My parents remember the 1965 tornado outbreak vividly ... three F4 tornados hit Hennepin County on May 6th of that year, and one travelled almost due north from Eden Prairie to Deephaven. I guess they could see that one from their front yard.

The Tornado History Project tries to track them all:

Tornado History Project: Maps and Statistics

[yoyoma02]

Originally Posted by DirtMagurt

This is really turning out to be a weird year nationwide in that regard.

As an aside, why is it that every tornado that comes through this area seems to track down 394 for a minute and then head northeast? I've been here for years and can't recall a single touchdown south of 394 while Anoka, Blaine, etc. get repeatedly clobbered.

There was a tornado south of downtown in the summer of 2009. I think it went down Park Ave or Chicago Ave between 28th St. and 38th St.

Wow, so depressing.

After a really bad 6 month long very cold arctic winter and 80 to 90 inches of snow, Minneapolis had to deal with this just shortly after that!?

Also, was Minneapolis really hit by other tornadoes before!?

It seems like every year areas of Minnesota routinely get severe thunderstorms with damaging hail and tornado warnings.
I think parts of Minnesota is in the "tornado alley" from May to September.