Power outages, flight delays after severe storms rumble through Minnesota
Joe Nelson
The severe thunderstorms that rumbled through central and southeast Minnesota early Tuesday have left thousands of residents without power.
As of 9:20 a.m., there were about 360 outage reports in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area, impacting 7,259 people, according to Xcel Energy's outage map.
Another 12 outages in the southwest metro area resulted in 1,423 customers with power issues, with 10 outage reports in the southeast affecting 47 customers.
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About 40 reports in an area between Alexandria, St. Cloud, Granite Falls and Hutchinson show about 500 impacted customers.
Xcel Energy's statewide report says a total of 9,248 Minnesota customers are currently impacted.
Minnesota residents were hit with a flurry of severe thunderstorm watches and warnings in the early hours. The National Weather Service has so far received reports of dime- and quarter-sized hail in parts of Minnesota.
The storms brought about an inch of rain to St. Cloud before 7 a.m., with just under half an inch falling at MSP Airport — though precipitation has continued since then. Areas south and west of the immediate metro area picked up 2-4 inches, with rain still falling.
The severe weather has caused numerous delays at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Flight Aware shows 68 delayed flights as of 9:30 a.m., with an average departure delay of 48 minutes, and arrival delays for airborne aircraft averaging 34 minutes. Flights to MSP were held at their departing airport until 9:30 a.m. due to the storm.
