An afternoon intensifying mesoscale convective system that moved from southeast South Dakota, eastward across southern Minnesota during the late afternoon and evening of Friday, July 5th, produced sporadic wind damage around Arlington, southeast to Henderson, Minnesota. Two brief tornadoes occurred. Part of a roof was blown off in Arlington, but it wasn't enough to determine whether it was a tornado or a severe downburst from a NWS storm survey. Videos and pictures from social media did show a brief tornado touchdown 6 miles ESE of Arlington. The pictures and videos showed a rotating wall cloud throughout the duration of this severe storm as it moved across Sibley, and into southwest Scott, and northern Le Sueur Counties.
This circulation weakened as it moved across northern Le Sueur County, but spotters did observe a brief, 5-10 second touchdown in a grove of trees near Elysian, which occurred later as the storm weakened.
In addition to the severe thunderstorms, thunderstorms trained over the same areas of south central Minnesota between Mankato, Owatonna, and Rochester. Nearly 4 inches of rain fell in an hour north of Waseca causing several roads in the area to become impassible. Local officials barricaded several roads north of Waseca due to water over the roads.