Tornado touched down in Coon Rapids; round 2 of storms possible tonight

A night of severe storms across the Twin Cities included a tornado touchdown in Coon Rapids, the National Weather Service confirmed on Thursday.

A blast of muggy heat followed Wednesday night's severe storms in the metro, which reached a record high of 91 degrees. By Thursday evening, the Twin Cities was back under a tornado watch along with large swaths of the state, and parts of western Minnesota were seeing more storms and high winds.

Wednesday night's tornado touched down at 8:27 p.m. in the northeastern part of Coon Rapids, Anoka County's largest suburb. The Twin Cities branch of the Weather Service said the tornado, with winds reaching 80 miles per hour, was 50 yards across and cut a path of damage three miles long.

There were no reports of deaths or serious injuries. A Coon Rapids city official said the worst known damage was a tree that fell into a house, cleaving it in two but leaving two occupants and their four dogs uninjured.

It was the kind of storm "we hope we don't see again," said Chris O'Brien with the National Weather Service.

Coon Rapids appeared to be the worst hit in Anoka County, said Tierney Peters with the Anoka County Sheriff's Office. But trees were down elsewhere across the metro, and power outages affected tens of thousands of customers.

In the east metro, no serious damage was reported, but some trees were down, said Laura Perkinswith the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

Large trees were reported down in Brooklyn Park, where city crews on Thursday fanned out to remove clean up the tree debris, some of it blocking traffic in places. High water caused some motorists to be stranded near the Rosedale mall, authorities said.

By midmorning Thursday, Xcel Energy reported about 28,000 customers were still without electricity, down from nearly 80,000 during the peak of the storm. That included Hopkins High School, which cancelled in-person learning for the day.

Winds topped out at 77 mph in Shakopee, and clocked in at 60 mph or greater at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Hopkins, Anoka, Eden Prairie and Roseville, where front doors of a Target store were blown out.

Hail 1 inch in diameter was reported in Woodbury and Newport, the weather service said.

In Minneapolis, a flash flood warning was issued, and cars were stalled and partly submerged in Minneapolis at 50th Street and Nicollet Avenue, 28th Street and Lyndale Avenue and 42nd Street and 38th Avenue. Flooding at the Mall of America also caused the light rail to temporarily stop service, and Metro Transit temporarily halted Green Line service due to high winds.

Some traffic lights and streetlights were also out across the metro area. The soccer field at Allianz Field in St. Paul also flooded, suspending Wednesday's game between Minnesota United and Colorado. The Bloomington Fire Department tweeted that firefighters responded to numerous incidents, including removing trees from roadways.

In southern Minnesota, possible tornadoes were reported near New Ulm and Storden, but none have been confirmed, O'Brien said. On Wednesday afternoon, storms dumped more than 3 inches of rain near Waseca, Minn., and hail 1 inch in diameter or greater was reported in Plainview, Kasson, Pine Island, St. Michael and Cottonwood. The largest stones — 2½ inches in diameter or the size of a tennis ball — fell in Oronoco, just north of Rochester, the Weather Service said.

Behind the storms, temperatures will fall back into the upper 70s Friday and low 70s Saturday and Sunday.

"We will be back to spring," O'Brien said.