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Nina Moini and Andrew Krueger

Storms spawned at least five tornadoes in southern Minnesota

Severe Weather-Minnesota
Workers cut a storm-damaged tree down on Friday, Sept. 21, 2018, in Morristown, Minn. Severe storms that moved across the region Thursday night, spawning at least five tornadoes.
David Joles | Star Tribune via AP

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The National Weather Service says at least five tornadoes touched down in southern Minnesota on Thursday evening as severe storms raced across the region.

Weather Service crews have been conducting surveys of the widespread damage. As of Friday night they had confirmed tornado touchdowns:

  1. near Granada in Martin County

  2. near Morristown in Rice County

  3. northwest of Faribault in Rice County

  4. near Lake Elysian and Waterville in Waseca and LeSueur counties

  5. near Medford and Nerstrand in Rice and Goodhue counties

    More tornado touchdowns may be confirmed as survey crews continue their work.

    Earlier: Severe storms, tornadoes leave path of destruction across southern Minnesota

    The tornado near Faribault ranked as an EF1 on the 1-5 Enhanced Fujita scale, with peak winds of about 95 mph. It traveled about 6 miles with a maximum width of a half-mile, the Weather Service reported. It caused major damage to homes, cabins, trailers and boats at Roberds Lake and tracked across Interstate 35 north of Faribault.

    Minnesota storms
    Maurine Caspari stands in the backyard of her Morristown, Minn., home, which was destroyed by an overnight storm, on Friday, Sept. 21, 2018. Several tornadoes struck as severe storms packing powerful winds and heavy rain left a trail of destruction across southern Minnesota overnight, the National Weather Service said Friday.
    Philip Weyhe | Northfield News via AP

    That tornado was not responsible for the severe damage at the Faribault airport, the Weather Service reported. The damage at the airport was caused by straight-line winds estimated at 110 mph.

    The wind speeds of the other tornadoes have not yet been rated.

    Cleanup work continued across the region on Saturday. Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn told MPR News that things were moving quicker as more roads were cleared of downed trees and power lines.

    "We still have a couple roads that are closed due to power lines and power utility poles on the roadway," he said. "But a majority of the major thoroughfares are back open and able to get traffic through them, so we're happy about that."

    Xcel Energy reported that about 6,500 customers remained without power as of 11:45 a.m. Saturday, mostly across Le Sueur, Rice and Goodhue counties.

    The path of the most severe damage from Thursday's storms cut from southwest to northeast, from Fairmont and Granada near the Iowa border, to Waterville and Morristown, through Faribault and on to Northfield and Cannon Falls.

    There were no immediate reports of injuries.