Strong thunderstorms swept across Minnesota overnight Wednesday, knocking out power for more than 45,000 Xcel Energy customers by 3:45 a.m. as lightning, heavy downpours and gusty winds moved through the state.
Ian Leonard was providing overnight updates as the storm line pushed into the Twin Cities metro around 3 a.m., where reports came in of wind gusts above 40 mph, thunder and lightning. By 3:45 a.m., Xcel Energy listed 460 outages affecting just over 45,000 customers statewide, a number that showed how quickly the storm system had spread beyond a single pocket of Minnesota.
The strongest weather alerts were still active in the dark hours before dawn. A severe thunderstorm warning covered parts of the northeast metro, including Anoka, Chisago, Ramsey and Washington counties, with small hail and winds up to 60 mph possible until 4 a.m. Farther south and west, the Twin Cities metro was under a special weather statement until 3:30 a.m., with wind up to 40 mph and pea-sized hail possible, while a Severe Thunderstorm Watch remained in place until 7 a.m.
Other warnings stretched across the state at the same time. Clearwater, Pennington, Polk and Red Lake counties were under a severe thunderstorm warning until 3:45 a.m., and Otter Tail County had been under a thunderstorm warning until 3:15 a.m. The National Weather Service also issued a special weather statement for Ramsey, Elk River and Otsego until 4 a.m., with wind gusts up to 50 mph and pea-sized hail possible. Parts of Wisconsin, including Polk and St. Croix counties, were also included in the warning area as the line of storms tracked east.
The difficult part for residents and utility crews was that the worst weather had not yet fully passed. Another round of storms was expected later Wednesday afternoon and evening, with a few strong storms possible even as outages were already widespread and forecasters kept close watch on the system crossing Minnesota from southwest to northeast.
For customers waiting for lights to come back on, the immediate answer is that the outage total was still rising before sunrise and no restoration timeline had been given in the overnight reports. The storm line had already shown it could knock out power fast, and the next test for crews could come later in the day if the new round of storms arrives as expected.
