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Severe storms swept across much of central and southern Minnesota from Saturday evening into early Sunday, prompting tornado warnings and knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses.
Those tornado warnings included several in the western and southern Twin Cities metro area early Sunday.
The National Weather Service said it had radar confirmation of a tornado touchdown just before 12:30 a.m. near Victoria. Officials reported downed trees blocking State Highway 7 near Rolling Acres Road and Minnewashta Parkway.
About 10 minutes earlier, a trained weather spotter reported a tornado on the ground near Hydes Lake, northeast of Norwood Young America.
There were no immediate reports of injuries from the storms. The storms weakened and largely exited the Twin Cities metro area by 2 a.m.
Xcel Energy and other utilities, combined, reported more than 50,000 customers without power early Sunday — most of those in the western Twin Cities metro area.
Earlier in the evening, the storms produced numerous reports of tornadoes across eastern South Dakota and into western Minnesota — including reported tornado sightings near Canby, Marietta and Danvers.
Law enforcement officials and weather spotters reported trees down in St. Michael, Renville, and south of Murdock.
The storms also dropped torrential rain, leading to several flash flood warnings. Street flooding was reported in Buffalo and Rockford, west of the Twin Cities, just after midnight.
The heavy rain may cause rivers across the region — some of them already in flood stage — to rise even further in the coming days.
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