At least one tornado damaged buildings in Minnesota Monday afternoon, as March went out like a very large lion. A tightly wound area of low pressure was the focal point for huge temperature differences and stormy weather of all sorts.
Highs soared into the 60s in the Twin Cities, while heavy snow socked Bemidji in the northwest part of Minnesota. Heavy snow fell in North Dakota. The Sioux Falls South Dakota temp dropped from 62 to 32 in two hours. In southeast South Dakota and southwest Minnesota, tornado warnings and blizzard warnings existed side-by-side.
The circled storm has prompted a Tornado Warning near Brookings, SD. Meanwhile, just west…blizzard conditions! pic.twitter.com/fyKIDknDMs
— Matt Hoffman (@WEAUHoffman) March 31, 2014
In the case of southwest Minnesota the tornado warning verified. Police report some damage to buildings in Lyon and Yellow Medicine counties between 3:30 and 4:30 Central time Monday afternoon. Yellow Medicine county cops told local media that machine sheds, grain bins, outbuildings and residences were damaged by the tornado. They didn’t report injuries initially.
Here’s where the reports are, via the Storm Prediction Center:
Temperature differences were still impressive when I grabbed this from My Huge Radar just before 7pm Indiana time: (Larger image.)
(Larger image of Minnesota-area warning chart.)