Parts of the Twin Cities got nailed with some severe weather this afternoon and it is looking like there was some widespread damage, but thankfully no reports of serious injuries or deaths. If that remains the case it will be damn lucky, because there was no warning where it all first hit a couple of miles north of my house.
What makes that all the more surprising is that same band of storms had prompted severe thunderstorm warnings when it was southwest of the Twin Cities an hour beforehand. That had me keeping an eye on it on the NWS radar as it headed my way, but as it approached the warnings were allowed to expire so I relaxed. The tornado warning then came out of the blue after someone reported one on the ground.
I'm seeing video of some pretty extensive damage in north Minneapolis. If the lack of injuries stays true then we were very, very, lucky. First things first, of course, and that is taking care of people, but almost as scary as the storm itself is how it could hit so hard without warning.
Update: The Strib is now reporting that one person was killed in north Minneapolis when a tree fell on a vehicle and two people have been hospitalized in critical condition. 27 others have been treated for moderate to minor injuries.
Perhaps my perception is wrong, because I don't see anybody else talking about it, but I still say that there should at least have been a thunderstorm warning in effect when that tornado hit. That band of cells was definitely identified as severe weather when it was to the southwest, but those warnings expired and no new warnings were issued as it began to move into the inner metro area. I checked the local NWS radar just a little before the sirens went off because it was raining so hard and there was nothing until all of a sudden there was a tornado warning.
I'm hearing all sorts of anecdotes about people who ran to their basements because the wind was shaking their house so badly, not because they heard the sirens. I'm not looking for scapegoats, but I do want to understand the limits of the system. And another question: In the interest of avoiding false alarms, is the NWS going too far the other way?
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