A lone severe thunderstorm developed west of Winsted and intensified as it moved across Winsted, then between Watertown and Delano. This storm moved into Hennepin County and weakened but produced gusty winds and torrential rainfall.
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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 episode as NWS MPX wrote it up.
A lone severe thunderstorm developed west of Winsted and intensified as it moved across Winsted, then between Watertown and Delano. This storm moved into Hennepin County and weakened but produced gusty winds and torrential rainfall. As this storm moved east of the Twin Cities, it produced a boundary which kept additional thunderstorms developing across the central part of the Twin Cities metro area. This allowed for flash flooding to develop as high rainfall rates, combined with urban streets, caused areas of 2-3 feet of flowing water.
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 Jul 27, 5:05 AM CST, 6 hours earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN 605 AM CDT WED JUL 27 2016 .SHORT TERM...(Today and tonight) Issued at 430 AM CDT Wed Jul 27 2016 Radar loops this morning nicely show the two waves of interest for the weather the rest of today. This first is a nice spin up around Fargo, with the other being an MCV over northeast Neb that is left over from an MCS that tracked from east of the Black Hills down into north-central KS overnight. Models initialized the northern wave well, but this MCV in Neb went largely unnoticed by the 27.00 model runs. For the 27.00 models, it is this wave up by Fargo that will slowly slide down I-94 through the day that much of the guidance is keying in on for bringing us precip chances today, though the Nebraska MCV could end up being problematic for the pop forecast for today, especially if it can help spur development later in the day to our south that is currently not forecast to happen. This morning, we are see showers and thunderstorms moving into western and across central MN within zone of slightly stronger winds and temp/moisture advection with the 925-850mb winds. However, these already weak 925-850 winds will weaken to virtually nothing this morning, with the coverage of showers expected to diminish through the morning before diurnal heating destabilizes the atmosphere, allowing shower and thunderstorm coverage to build again by late this morning and into the afternoon. Biggest change needed for the pops is both deterministic and CAMs are fairly progressive with the wave up by Fargo through tonight, which will result in a much faster west to east ending of precip than what the previous forecast had. Though we sped up the precip departure considerably tonight, we are still slower than what the majority of CAMs depict. Still not anticipating much of a severe threat. The one thing that is of some concern is that this afternoon, a weak surface low will be tracking across the area, but there will be virtually no flow at h850 and h5 winds will be under 20kts, resulting in very little shear, which means little organization to what will be pulse/airmass thunderstorms. Extensive cloud cover will also limit the degree to which we can destabilize and instability looks to be weak enough where updrafts will not be strong enough to generate much of a hail or even wind threat with this activity. .LONG TERM...(Thursday through Tuesday) Issued at 430 AM CDT Wed Jul 27 2016 A cooler and drier air mass will settle in across MN/WI Thursday and Friday behind the rain and cold front that will pass through the area today and tonight. A surface high will move across the Upper Mississippi River Valley late this week and the flow will remain weak through the depth of the atmosphere. There will be a weak northwest flow aloft with light and somewhat variable winds in the lower atmosphere. Friday morning will likely be the coolest morning we've had since July 1st when we saw lows in the 40s and 50s locally. We have a chance for showers/storms in western MN on Saturday when the 925-850mb flow increases across the Dakotas and the low level jet approaches the western MN border - not likely at this point - but possible. The pattern turns a little more interesting by Monday-Tuesday when the flow increases out of the west-southwest with building heights as a trough digs in across British Columbia and crosses the northern Rockies by Monday night. This will certainly bring about an increase in temperatures and humidity locally by Tuesday - perhaps a couple rounds of showers/storms. The rain chances are still highly uncertain given it's 1) a day six forecast and 2) the convective trigger is weak as the surface boundary doesn't look very strong and the upper support remains well north of the area. && .AVIATION...(For the 12Z TAFS through 12Z Thursday morning) Issued at 604 AM CDT Wed Jul 27 2016 Scattered shra/tsra will slowly move across the area today. Still anticipating coverage and intensity of storms to diminish through 16z as 925-850 mb wind weaken, but storms should begin to refire after 16z as instability builds. Looks like a hit and miss type scenario which leads to the proliferation of the tempo groups and vc mentions. In the wake of the precip tonight, both the GFS and NAM bring stratus down from ne MN/nw WI. LAMP guidance hits this as well, so went with MVFR/IFR cigs late tonight. There is a chance this could be overdone as SREF probs for cigs less than 3k ft show low stratus mainly impacting se MN into nrn IA. KMSP...We could see some scattered showers through the morning, but expecting most widespread activity to hold off until we get a little daytime heating and can build up some instability. Locally, storm coverage looks to be scattered. We could see activity linger through 2z tonight as well, but maintained an earlier end time inherited from the 06z TAFs. For overnight stratus, the LAMP has support for IFR cigs Thu morning from both the GFS/NAM, though we are a bit concerned this low level moisture and cloud cover may be a bit overdone, hence not going as low with conditions as LAMP guidance currently has. /OUTLOOK FOR KMSP/ Thu...VFR by afternoon. Winds NE 5 kts. Fri...VFR. Winds E 5 kts. Sat...VFR. Winds SE 5 kts. && .MPX Watches/Warnings/Advisories... WI...None. MN...None. && SHORT TERM...MPG LONG TERM...CLF AVIATION...MPG
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN 1149 AM CDT WED JUL 27 2016 MNZ041>045-047>070-073>078-082>085-091>093-WIZ014>016-023>028- 281700- DOUGLAS-TODD-MORRISON-MILLE LACS-KANABEC-STEVENS-POPE-STEARNS- BENTON-SHERBURNE-ISANTI-CHISAGO-LAC QUI PARLE-SWIFT-CHIPPEWA- KANDIYOHI-MEEKER-WRIGHT-HENNEPIN-ANOKA-RAMSEY-WASHINGTON- YELLOW MEDICINE-RENVILLE-MCLEOD-SIBLEY-CARVER-SCOTT-DAKOTA- REDWOOD-BROWN-NICOLLET-LE SUEUR-RICE-GOODHUE-WATONWAN-BLUE EARTH- WASECA-STEELE-MARTIN-FARIBAULT-FREEBORN-POLK-BARRON-RUSK- ST. CROIX-PIERCE-DUNN-PEPIN-EAU CLAIRE- 1149 AM CDT WED JUL 27 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL MINNESOTA...EAST CENTRAL MINNESOTA...SOUTH CENTRAL MINNESOTA... SOUTHEAST MINNESOTA...SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA...WEST CENTRAL MINNESOTA...NORTHWEST WISCONSIN AND WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT SHOWERS AND A FEW STRONG THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON AND INTO THE EARLY EVENING FOR MAINLY EAST CENTRAL AND SOUTH CENTRAL MINNESOTA...AS WELL AS WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN. THE MAIN WEATHER HAZARDS WILL BE LIGHTNING...HEAVY RAINFALL...GUSTY WINDS AND HAIL. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY THERE IS A SLIGHT CHANCE FOR THUNDERSTORMS ON SATURDAY. THE THREAT FOR SEVERE WEATHER IS LOW. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... DUE TO THE ISOLATED NATURE OF THE STORMS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING...SKYWARN SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED. JLT
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
1037 AM CDT WED JUL 27 2016
MNZ058-066-271615-
MEEKER-MCLEOD-
1037 AM CDT WED JUL 27 2016
...A STRONG THUNDERSTORM WITH NICKEL SIZE HAIL AND HEAVY RAIN WILL
AFFECT NORTHWESTERN MCLEOD AND SOUTHERN MEEKER COUNTIES...
AT 1036 AM CDT...A STRONG THUNDERSTORM WAS LOCATED OVER CORVUSO...OR
10 MILES WEST OF HUTCHINSON...MOVING EAST AT 20 MPH.
NICKEL SIZE HAIL AND HEAVY RAIN IS EXPECTED WITH THIS STORM.
LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE...
HUTCHINSON...GREENLEAF...CEDAR MILLS...
HUTCHINSON AIRPORT AND CORVUSO.
TORRENTIAL RAINFALL IS ALSO OCCURRING WITH THIS STORM...AND MAY CAUSE
LOCALIZED FLOODING. DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE THROUGH FLOODED
ROADWAYS.
LAT...LON 4501 9465 4501 9426 4499 9426 4479 9430
4485 9450 4489 9450 4489 9464 4490 9468
TIME...MOT...LOC 1536Z 281DEG 15KT 4494 9459
JRBThe Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 17:02 UTC.
4 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 funnel cloud, 1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
A funnel cloud was observed east of Winsted. Although multiple photos and videos showed the funnel close to the ground, it was not possible to verify that it touched down.
Multiple photos and videos showed a funnel cloud east of Winsted, and that it was very close to the ground. Damage was verified at the same location, with several trees knocked down and heavy farm machinery moved.
Several large tree branches were blown down across the city of Winsted. One large tree, 20 inches in diameter, also fell in Winsted on 6th Street.
A picture was taken of several large hail stones, the largest was three inches in diameter in northeast Winsted.
A metal roof was blown off a barn, with several large trees and power lines blown down south of Delano.
Several trees were blown down in North Branch.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Minnesota in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Minnesota, 2016Warnings in Minnesota, July 2016
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: 644804, 659310, 644807, 644805, 644806, 644808, 644809, 644810.