Storms, baseball-sized hail leave trail of damage across Minnesota

Lightning, hail and strong wind

Driving down I-94 like a weekend road trip, powerful storms pushed all the way from Fargo into western Wisconsin Saturday night into early Sunday morning and they left a trail of damage in their path.

“As they got to northwestern parts of Hennepin County, that’s where they were strongest,” Chris Reece, FIVE EYEWITNESS NEWS Meteorologist said.

In Monticello, destructive baseball-sized hail fell from the sky.

“Can you imagine that hitting you in the head?! Whoa,” one man said in a video sent to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS while showing off one of the many large pieces of hail in his yard.

The balls of ice smashed people’s windshields and shattered backyard tables, but for those who were spared from the hail, they couldn’t escape the winds.

Gusts were reported at upwards of 60 mph across the metro which brought down several large trees. One tree can be seen crashed on top of a woman’s car in Rosemount, and another large tree heavily damaged a man’s fence in Plymouth.

“It’s like a tropical storm. You know, it’s not hurricane-force, but it is strong,” Reece said. “At 60 miles an hour, you start bringing down trees, you start bringing down power lines, you strart losing shingles. What we woke up to is no surprise.”

The overnight storms knocked out the power for some 200,000 homes and businesses across the metro early Sunday morning. The National Weather Service is also now investigating at least two reported tornadoes — one near Richland County, North Dakota, and another in Rice County, MN.