Power outages after intense storms rock Twin Cities with hail, wind

Overnight severe storms that blasted the Twin Cities metro area won't be forgotten soon as the slow-moving cells produced an incredible amount of lightning, house-shaking thunder and dozens of reports of large hail. 

Near Loretto, located north of Maple Plain in western Hennepin County, baseball-sized hail rock the area around 12:45 a.m. Hail that was 2.5 inches in diameter was reported in the first wave of storms around 9:45 p.m. in Victoria, while 2-inch hail was also reported in Buffalo, Chanhassen and Montrose. 

You can find more storm reports here, including strong winds. The highest wind gust reported was a 61 mph surge in Richfield at 1:45 a.m., while Eden Prairie saw a gust of 59 mph. KSTP's Ben Henry was at the scene in Bloomington Monday morning where there was significant tree damage. 

As of 7:40 a.m., there were just over 8,500 Xcel Energy customers in Minnesota without power, the majority of them in Hennepin County. 

The radar replay from when the first round of storms initiated in the south metro around 8 p.m. until things ended early Monday morning is impressive, and the red blobs that rolled over the same areas on radar help explain the torrential rainfall that led to totals in excess of 5 inches in some places. 

The NWS office in Chanhassen record 5.53 inches of rain. Basically, the entire metro area got anywhere from 2-5 inches of rain. In the map below, green represents 1-1.5 inches, yellow is 2 inches, orange is 2.5-3 inches and pink represents 4+ inches of rain. 

Here are some videos and photos of the storms.