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Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News
Paul Huttner

Tornado, severe weather warnings in 2022 blowing away Minnesota records

Warnings spike; details still coming in on Memorial Day tornadoes

Severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings by year
Severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings by year for the Twin Cities NWS Office warning area.
Twin Cities National Weather Service data, via Iowa Emergency Management.

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It’s not your imagination, Minnesota.

This year has generated a record number of severe weather warnings through May 31. Second place is not even close.

So far in 2022, the Twin Cities National Weather Service office has issued 228 severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings for its county warning area. That area includes most of central and southern Minnesota.

As you can see on the graph at the top of this post, second place is 1998 when 152 warnings were issued through May 31.

And this year has already produced more warnings than many full years, according to the Twin Cities NWS office. Here’s their reply to my tweet above.

severe weather warnings by year
Severe weather warnings by year.
Twin Cities National Weather Service

Memorial Day tornado surveys

We’re still getting some of the finer details from the storm surveys of the Memorial Day severe weather outbreak.

So far it looks like at least 4 tornadoes tore across western and central Minnesota. NWS survey teams are still assessing whether the 50-mile tornado track between Milan and Glenwood was continuous or if there was a gap. That tornado may have been on the ground for 47 minutes!

Here’s the latest storm survey report from the Twin Cities NWS on that tornado.

  • [Delayed Report] 4 W Milan [Chippewa Co, MN] NWS STORM SURVEY reports TORNADO at 30 May, 3:36 PM CDT -- TORNADO SPUN UP NEAR THE MINNESOTA RIVER VALLEY ABOUT 4 MILES WEST OF MILAN AND TRACKED NORTH NORTHEAST 50 MILES TO NORTHWEST OF GLENWOOD (45.68, -95.47). THERE WAS A SMALL GAP BETWEEN THIS TORNADO AND THE FORADA TORNADO AND MORE INVESTIGATION IS NEEDED TO SEE IF IT WAS A SINGLE TRACK. FOR NOW, THE ENDING TIME IS 423 PM. NEAR CONTINUOUS TREE DAMAGE WAS FOUND ALONG THE TRACK. SOME FARM OUTBUILDINGS AND ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION LINES WERE DAMAGED. SEVERAL AGRICULTURE IRRIGATION SYSTEMS WERE OVERTURNED. MAXIMUM WIND WAS 100 MPH AND MAX WIDTH WAS ABOUT 350 YARDS.

Here are some additional tornado reports from Monday.

Typically the Twin Cities NWS office releases the final storm survey reports here.