After one round of thunderstorms moved across Minnesota on Monday morning, attention turned to a second, potentially much more dangerous round of storms during the afternoon and evening hours.
Some school districts announced they were ending classes early to allow students and staff to make it home before potential severe weather.
The National Weather Service said there’s a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms — that’s level 4 out of 5 — from Willmar and St. Cloud south and east to the Twin Cities, Mankato and Rochester. It also extends into parts of western Wisconsin.
Most of the rest of Minnesota has an elevated risk of severe weather, too. The threats include large hail, damaging winds and possibly strong tornadoes.
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Severe weather threat for Monday
National Weather Service
Ahead of the storms, officials urged people to keep a close eye on weather conditions, and have a way to receive severe weather watches and warnings. They said people should plan, and know where they can seek shelter if severe storms approach.
At least five school districts — Blue Earth Area, Jackson County Central, Martin County West, Red Rock Central and Windom — announced they were ending classes early Monday because of the risk of severe weather.
“We want everyone home safely before the storms begin,” Martin County West school officials wrote.
“With nearly 800 students relying on bus transportation — some on routes that require up to two hours from time of departure to return to bus garages — we want to ensure everyone arrives home safely before the potential for severe weather increases,” Blue Earth Area school officials wrote.
St. Paul Public Schools preemptively canceled most after-school programs and activities for Monday afternoon and evening due to the risk of severe storms.
The city of Minneapolis said it would close public-facing, nonemergency city facilities and services at 2 p.m. Its 311 call center will have extended hours — until 9 p.m. — to handle any storm-related public service calls.
The city said it had activated its Emergency Operations Center and was conducting outreach to homeless shelters and service providers to ensure unhoused residents have a safe place to go.
Utilities across the region were also closely monitoring weather conditions for potential severe storms that could down trees and power lines. Xcel Energy said it’s “tracking these forecasts and will stage additional crews as needed to respond to any outages, attending to the largest outages first to quickly get the most customers back online as soon as possible.”
