REGIONAL— Powerful back-to-back storms this week brought high winds that knocked out power across a broad swath of central and northeastern Minnesota, leaving thousands of customers without power, in some cases for more than a day.
The first storm, which arrived Monday afternoon, was preceded by an impressive wall cloud and even a tornado warning for the immediate Tower area, although there were no reports of related damage. According to Joe Moore, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Duluth, the weather office issued five tornado warnings on Monday, including the one for the Tower area. In all cases, the warnings were radar indicated, rather than actual sightings. “We saw rotation on radar in these locations and the environment was certainly ripe for a tornado,” said Moore.
Despite the impressive storm front and possible tornadoes, the storm brought mostly much-needed rain to parts of northern St. Louis County. Pockets of high wind did spark power outages in some locations, although they weren’t widespread and were mostly located on the Iron Range or points south.
Such was not the case with the second storm that plowed through the area shortly after midnight early Tuesday morning. That storm brought plenty of lightning along with an extended period of high winds that took down trees and left much of the Iron Range, Lake Vermilion, and rural Ely areas in the dark. As the height of the storm, Lake Country Power was reporting 12,000 customers without power. As of mid-morning on Tuesday, the rural electric cooperative had restored service to more than 5,000 of those customers, still leaving nearly 7,000 without power throughout their service territory. Lake Country Power spokesperson Tami Zaun said work crews had nearly restored service to the 4,000 customers who lost power during the first storm, when the far bigger blow struck the area, serving up a major setback to their work. Electric crews are reporting widespread damage, including downed trees, downed lines, broken poles, and storm debris.
Minnesota Power, which is typically spared major outages in the wake of storms, was reporting over 1,600 customers as of Tuesday morning. Nearly a third of those outages were in Tower-Soudan and along the south shore of Pike Bay on Lake Vermilion, where a combined 530 customers were without power as of Tuesday morning. Power was restored in Soudan around 9 a.m., but the lights didn’t come back on in Tower until 10 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
While the storms did a number on the region’s power grid, they were relatively modest as severe weather outbreaks go. Moore notes that the NWS never issued a severe thunderstorm warning for northern St. Louis County for the overnight storm since the storms were weakening as they reached the area. While the storm brought plenty of sustained wind, there were no reports of hail, and the wind speeds recorded by stations in the region fell short of severe status. The Virginia-Eveleth regional airport reported a peak wind gust of 54 miles per hour, while the Cook airport experienced a 44 mile-per-hour gust.
If the storm seemed dramatic, it could be because the region has had a pretty tame severe weather season so far this year, according to Moore. “It feels like we’re a little overdue,” he said.
Looking ahead to the Fourth, Moore said there is a chance of pop-up showers and thunderstorms on Saturday, mostly in the afternoon and evening, which should allow most communities to get holiday parades and picnics completed without interruption.