Radar shot as storms moved thorough North Iowa June 21st 2013

A line of severe thunderstorms commonly called a now echo impacted the entire area early this morning and brought widespread strong winds, isolated spots of hail and torrential downpours and flash flooding across the local area. Thunderstorms first developed in South Dakota late Thursday afternoon and formed into a bow echo that crossed the state of Minnesota in a southeasterly direction from the Twin Cities area around 2am. Storms continued to follow a stationary front and by 5 to 6am the bow echo re cycled and strengthened as it moved into the local area, but especially after crossing the Iowa boarder where rich dew points in the lower 70s were seen storms were seen.

Cloud line from early morning storms June 21st 2013

The bow echo first enter the area in Olmstead, Dodge and Winona counties where it did spotty wind damage around Rochester and throughout the 3 counties. As the storms pasted Rochester they strengthened about the point where they reached Austin were spotters reported power outages and trees down. The storms crossed the boarder into Iowa, Here in Cresco, Iowa we had quarter sized hail and wind damage in the form of several medium sized 6-10″ diameter branches down. The storm went on to produce wind damage around Decorah and flash flooding as well as locations father south and east before exiting our area shortly after 7am.

Hailstones June 21st 2013

Here in Cresco the storm was singled by very dark skies, dark enough for the city lights to turn back on as the storm approached. I could see a rolling cloud line with green skies behind it ( photo above) and as the line moved in winds began to pick up from the north. Strong north winds continued especially as the heavy rain came down. At this point in the storm a video can be seen below. I estimated the winds were around 50MPH then after 5-6 minutes or so, quarter sized hail began falling, some of the hailstones looked slightly larger then quarters making it the biggest hail I’ve personally seen. Torrential rain followed this hail heavy enough that it was difficult to see very far. Damage mostly in the form of several large branches could be seen down across the city including in my own lawn. Many of them snapped high up in the tree and did not fall

Video of the strong winds as the storm moved into Cresco,IA June 21st 2013

 Hailstone from my yard June 21st 2013

This hailstone is slightly large then a quarter. I kept this hailstone and put it in my freezer. The hail fell for about 1-2 minutes and quickly started to damage garden plants but it did not do much damage as it did not last long.

Tree limb snapped high up into a tree in my backyard June 21st 2013

Reports

Decorah,IA 3.00″ of rain Flash Flooding Reported in the city

Decorah,IA Trees down

Genoa,MN Mud slide reported on highway 35

Rochester,MN quarter sized hail, Trees down in NW Rochester

Austin,MN Tree down on powerline causing power outages

Cresco,IA Tree limbs down, quarter sized hai