Severe storms hit Minnesota and the metropolitan region between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, resulting in tens of thousands of homes without electricity.
More than 54,000 Xcel Energy customers across the state were without power as of 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, with more than 30,000 of them concentrated in Ramsey County, the utility reported.
Also considering other energy providers, the total number of affected customers in Minnesota exceeded 74,000, according to data from the website poweroutage.us.
The electrical outage monitoring platform detailed that more than 6,600 homes in Wright County, 3,300 in Douglas County, 3,000 in Stearns County and 2,200 in Cass County were also impacted.
Several tree branches were downed in the metropolitan area, with reports of damage beginning to emerge. In Minneapolis, the south region had large branches down, as indicated by social media information.
The storms, which formed over South Dakota on Tuesday, moved quickly across Minnesota, bringing ferocious winds. Gusts of 83 mph (133 km/h) were recorded in Marietta, 78 mph (125 km/h) in Madison, 72 mph (115 km/h) in Chokio and 69 mph (111 km/h) in Benson, all in western Minnesota, according to the National Weather Service.
Other intense gusts included 64 mph (103 kph) in Alexandria, 51 mph (82 kph) in St. Cloud and 49 mph (79 kph) in Buffalo, the Weather Service said.
A repeat of this scenario is expected for Wednesday, but the risk has moved east. The Weather Service forecasts new storms to form directly over the Twin Cities and the I-35 corridor, heading toward western Wisconsin.
“A favorable environment for tornadoes will be present in western Wisconsin,” the Weather Service warned.
The metropolitan region faces another day of intense heat, with temperatures approaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32°C), maintaining the beginning of June with hot weather.
If the temperature reaches 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.6°C), it will be just the third time in 154 years of records in the Twin Cities, and in 133 years in St. Cloud, that highs have reached at least 80 degrees in the first ten days of June. The previous years with this pattern were 2023 and 1976, according to the Minnesota Office of Climatology, highlighting the rarity and unusual intensity of this heat wave for the period.
That streak could end on Thursday, with a forecast high of just 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24°C). The rest of the week is expected to bring a chance of rain on Thursday and sunny to partly cloudy conditions from Friday through Sunday, with temperatures between 71 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit (21.6°C and 26.6°C), according to the Weather Service.