Monday’s severe weather outbreak in the Midwest was historic in Minnesota, where a record-early arrival of the year’s first tornadoes occurred.
The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado caused EF1 damage in Zimmerman, about 35 miles north-northwest of Minneapolis. Damage from a separate tornado has also been found near Clarks Grove. Before Monday, the earliest in the year a twister had struck Minnesota was almost two weeks later – on March 18, 1968, the National Weather Service said.
Monday’s tornado in Zimmerman was more than 100 miles farther north than the March 1968 tornado.
Minnesota had a similar early-season tornado almost five years ago on March 19, 2012, when an EF0 moved along a seven-mile path near the town of Elysian.
Tornadoes have occurred from March through November in Minnesota, according to statistics from the state’s Department of Natural Resource (DNR). But about 77 percent of the tornadoes confirmed from 1950-2010 were sandwiched in the three months spanning May-July when warmer temperatures and moisture are more abundant at that latitude. March accounted for just 1 percent of Minnesota’s tornadoes in the 60-year period, the DNR says.
The largest March tornado outbreak in Minnesota was on March 29, 1998, when 13 tornadoes were spawned, killing one person and injuring 16 others. Included was an F4 tornado that carved a path 25 miles long in south-central Minnesota that destroyed much of downtown Comfrey. A separate F3 tornado in that outbreak caused heavy damage in St. Peter.
Monday’s tornado in Minnesota was spawned by a strong low-pressure system that pulled a tongue of warm air far to the north in the Midwest. Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport saw a high temperature of 65 degrees, which is 29 degrees above average, and a few degrees shy of the daily record for the day of 69 degrees.
by Chris Dolce
Mar 7 2017 02:00 PM EST
