Storms rock metro, quiet Monday ahead

Wow.

That was a good one. Two separate clusters of storms rocked the metro Sunday afternoon. The storms developed rapidly right over the Weather lab in Victoria around 3:45 pm.

The first cluster in the southwest and south metro were mostly "hailers." They cranked out some 1" hail including these gems captured by Twin Cities NWS forecaster Todd Krause.

As the initial storm cluster tracked through the south metro with hail and heavy rain, I was tracking a separate strong cell forming in Wright County that was gaining steam and moving quickly into the northwest metro.

This was the storm intensified rapidly, and raced into the central Twin Cities metro including downtown Minneapolis. The quick hitting storm delivered torrential downpours, hail and wind gusts to 60 mph.

4 NNW Downtown Minneapolis [Hennepin Co, MN] TRAINED SPOTTER reports HAIL of ping pong ball size (M1.50 INCH) at 5:14 PM CDT --

MPR reporter Tim Post captured the hail's surreal fury in slow motion progress.

Wind gusts to 60 mph tore off some tree branches in Minneapolis and other metro communities.

The storm raced east at speeds of 50 mph and another hail core slammed Stillwater and towns along the St. Croix River.

Warnings yes, but no watch

Sunday's storms developed rapidly along a weak cool front just at afternoon peak heating time around 3:45pm. I posted about the likely development of severe weather Sunday at 12:41 pm. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center did have a slight risk over the Twin Cities for Sunday, but interestingly did not issue a severe thunderstorm watch.

The Twin Cities NWS issued timely warnings as the storms erupted.

Quiet Monday

We enjoy a quiet Monday before a slow moving low pressure system slides north bringing more showers and T-storms by late Tuesday through the rest of the week.

Rainfall this week could exceed 1" or more in many locations. Good news for a free lawn watering if you're in a drought.

Stay tuned and keep the weather radio handy this week.