The unusual-for-this-summer hot day Thursday ended with severe weather in spots in eastern North Dakota moving into northwestern Minnesota shortly after 9 p.m., dropping hail and high winds.
Severe thunderstorm warnings were in effect in the last hours of Thursday over parts of Marshall, Pennington, Polk and Red Lake counties of northwestern Minnesota.
Half-inch hail fell for 5 to 10 minutes near Gatzke, Minn. Hail 1.75 inches in diameter fell 12 miles west of Argyle, Minn. Hail the size of quarters fell west of Thief River Falls. Hailstones 1 inch in diameter and heavy rain fell near Badger, Minn., about 8:30 p.m. Thursday and at the Thief River Falls airport about 9:40 p.m.
Hail 0.88 of an inch in diameter fell five miles west of Buxton, N.D., about 9:40 p.m. and in Warren, Minn., about 9 p.m. Winds in Warren were estimated at 35 mph.
Crookston had many hail reports, along with 60 mph winds at the airport between about 10 and 11 p.m. Hail there ranged from 1 inch in diameter to 1.50 inches to 1.75 inches at the University of Minnesota-Crookston.
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Temperatures reached the mid-80s Thursday across the region, sparking the thunderclouds that moved in by evening.
A severe thunderstorm watch was in effect for northeastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota until midnight Thursday.
But a cooler front came in with the scattered thunderstorms. Today temperatures will reach only the mid-70s, with a 30 percent chance of rain across much of the region.
