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Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News
Paul Huttner

Bizarre: Likely earliest tornado on record for Minnesota

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Another day, another bizarre out of season Minnesota weather record.

This one appears to be the earliest tornado on record for the state of Minnesota. Various Twitter and Instagram accounts posted damage reports along with photos and video of the reported touchdown near Orrock, Zimmerman, and Princeton.

march 6 tornado
via bassmanjb2

I asked passerby Jim Bass via Twitter if he thought everyone was okay.

We hope so too. We were a little closer see than we planned. We stopped at one house on cty 4 that had the roof ripped off the garage it looked like. They flashed the flashlight at us to let us know they were ok. Hopefully noone got hurt.

Here's some additional detail from the Associated Press.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) A likely tornado near Princeton has downed trees and power lines and ripped off part of a roof.

Law enforcement reported the tornado in east-central Minnesota, about 44 miles northwest of Minneapolis, late Monday afternoon. National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Krause says if confirmed, the tornado would be the earliest in the year ever for Minnesota. He says the previous record was a tornado on March 18, 1968, near St. James, in southern Minnesota.

The storm also brought hail to central and southern Minnesota. A spotter measured a hailstone of 4 inches near Cokato.

The weather service says a wind gust of 62 mph was reported near Pierz in central Minnesota.

In southeastern Minnesota, a large grain elevator collapsed in Clarks Grove, and there were numerous reports of building damage.

https://twitter.com/severestudios/status/838906162921754624

If confirmed, the March 6th tornado will break the previous record by an amazing 12 days. https://twitter.com/NWSTwinCities/status/838738698262962176 Impressive anvils An impressive line of anvil-topped thunderheads towered into the March sky Monday. NOAA's GOES 1 km resolution satellite loop look more like a July outbreak. https://twitter.com/MPRweather/status/838881881261228032 Hailers This storm also cranked out some incredible hailstones. Updrafts approaching 100 mph were likely associated with this storm to generate the required lift to produce hailstones this big. https://twitter.com/HeyJLev/status/838891394001432576 Hail covered the ground in several locations. This is Redwood Falls. https://twitter.com/JonMarkuson/status/838881952560214016 Rotation The storms north of the metro showed tremendous rotation for several hours. https://twitter.com/KevinBugs/status/838904046551511045 The Twin Cities NWS will send survey crews out to confirm tornado damage Tuesday.