12 hail, 3 funnel cloud, 1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 3 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Twin Cities, MN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 14, 3:00 AM CST, 8 hours 40 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN 400 AM CDT WED MAY 14 2003 SLOW MOVING UPPER LOW IS MAKING ITS WAY THROUGH UPPER LEVEL RIDGE THIS MORNING. SURFACE REFLECTION OF NEARLY VERTICAL SYSTEM IS EVIDENT OVER NORTHEAST SOUTH DAKOTA AT 08Z. AN UPPER LEVEL WAVE THAT MANAGES TO BREAK THROUGH AN UPPER RIDGE AXIS OFTEN HAS A TENDENCY TO BRING A GOOD DEAL OF PRECIPITATION...GIVEN AN ADEQUATE SUPPLY OF MOISTURE. THIS SYSTEM APPEARS TO BE MAKING THE MOST OF THE OPPORTUNITY AS 0.50 INCHES OF RAIN HAS ALREADY FALLEN AT CHANHASSEN. VIGOROUS LIFT EVIDENT ON 295-300K SURFACES (ETA) IS DYNAMICALLY DRIVEN BY JET MOMENTUM (I.E. DIVERGENCE IN THE LEFT FRONT QUAD OF THE SPEED MAX). IN THIS INSTANCE...THE JET STREAK IS IN THE BASE OF THE UPPER LEVEL TROUGH SO THE UPPER LEVEL LIFT IS EVEN MORE PRONOUNCED THAN WOULD NORMALLY BE THE CASE. THE OMEGA FIELD MOVES SOUTHEAST OF CWA AFTER MIDNIGHT AND IS FOLLOWED BY 3 DRY DAYS. BROAD SOUTHWEST FLOW DEVELOPS LATE IN THE WEEKEND AND THIS IS FOLLOWED BY SEVERAL DAYS WITH THUNDERSTORM CHANCES. .MSP...NONE.
MNZ041>045-047>070-073>078-082>085-091>093-WIZ014>016-023>028-151016- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN 1214 PM CDT WED MAY 14 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN MINNESOTA...AND WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT HAIL UP TO DIME SIZE IS POSSIBLE WITH THE STRONGER THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS SOUTH CENTRAL MINNESOTA THIS AFTERNOON. THE AREA IS ROUGHLY SOUTH OF A LINE FROM FARIBAULT TO REDWOOD FALLS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SKYWARN SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY OR TONIGHT. RJN
The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 17:51 UTC.
12 hail, 3 funnel cloud, 1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
The first of three confirmed funnel clouds and one tornado on May 14 developed near Sleepy Eye. The airmass was very cold aloft, a weak surface trough was draped over south central Minnesota, and partly cloudy skies during the late morning hours enabled the development of scattered thunderstorms.
Tornado touched down just west of an oats field, moved across a grassy field, crossed the Cottonwood River, then dissipated. There were a few broken trees near the Cottonwood River, but no damage was caused to any structure. The oats were just coming out of the ground and were laid down only for about 12 hours before returning to normal growth.
Hail covered ground for several hours.
Hail covered road.
Hailed on the northeast side of Mankato.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Minnesota in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Minnesota, 2003Warnings in Minnesota, May 2003
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5350439, 5350755, 5350756, 5350757, 5350758, 5350759, 5350760, 5350761, 5350762, 5350763, 5350764, 5350765, 5350766, 5350767, 5350768, 5350769.