Heavy Rain and Tornadoes: June 19, 2014

Rainfall for the 24-hour period ending June 19, 2014 Courtesy: National Weather Service

 

The rains just keep on coming.  After going through two consecutive nights were some pretty impressive rainfall totals resulted from training thunderstorms, Thursday, May 19th saw even more rain.  The surface low pressure system that sat over southeastern South Dakota and caused the heavy rains Tuesday and Wednesday created more issues as it slowly moved into extreme northeastern Nebraska and into Iowa.  As the South Dakota front worked into the western Minnesota area, another line of strong thunderstorms developed and even spawn a small tornado in Benson, MN. As the front propagated, heavy convection and already saturated conditions on the surface helped to develop even more precipitation in areas that were already under flash flood watches and warning.

Places like Eden Prairie saw at much as 5.47 inches of rainfall according to one CoCoRaHS station. Minneapolis/St. Paul officially tallied a total of 4.13 inches of rainfall, the highest one day total in five years.

Areas in the Red River Valley were also widely affected by the large amounts of rainfall

The after affects of this event coupled with the two events prior led to widespread flooding throughout the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas.  The Minnesota River caused flooding in areas of Scott and Carver counties.  Many area roadways were washed out and closed down due to the potential driving hazards. 

Below is a preliminary report of the storm rainfall totals and tornado reports.  Rainfall totals courtesy of CoCoRaHS.

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
426 PM CDT THU JUN 19 2014

..TIME...  ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...    ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...  ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

1030 AM    FLASH FLOOD      3 NE LE SUEUR          44.49N 93.86W
06/19/2014                  LE SUEUR          MN  EMERGENCY MNGR

            A MUD SLIDE DESTROYED A HOME, LOCATED ALONG HENDERSON
LAKE ROAD.
0100 PM    FLASH FLOOD      2 E LE SUEUR            44.46N 93.87W
06/19/2014                  LE SUEUR          MN  EMERGENCY MNGR

            PORTIONS OF COUNTY ROADS 116, 117, 188, AND CSAH 28,
CLOSED DUE TO EXCESSIVE WATER AND WASHOUTS OF ROADWAYS.
DOWNED TREES ALSO SEEN OVER ALL ROADS NOTED ABOVE. ALL
ROADS CLOSED BY 1 PM.

0335 PM    HEAVY RAIN      WELCOME                43.67N 94.62W
06/19/2014  M1.70 INCH      MARTIN            MN  TRAINED SPOTTER
            OCCURRED IN ABOUT 90 MINUTES.
0408 PM    TORNADO          3 WSW BENSON            45.30N 95.66W
06/19/2014                  SWIFT              MN  LAW ENFORCEMENT
0413 PM    TORNADO          1 S BENSON              45.30N 95.61W
06/19/2014                  SWIFT              MN  LAW ENFORCEMENT
            DEBRIS CLOUD SIGHTED NEAR HIGHWAY 12.

0414 PM    TORNADO          5 WSW FARWELL          45.72N 95.71W
06/19/2014                  POPE              MN  PUBLIC

0422 PM    FUNNEL CLOUD    BENSON                  45.32N 95.61W
06/19/2014                  SWIFT              MN  TRAINED SPOTTER
            CURRENTLY OVER TOWN, BUT HAS BEEN TOUCHING DOWN
INTERMITTENTLY.