SILVER LAKE, Minnesota — The National Weather Service confirms at least two tornadoes touched down in central Minnesota on Sunday, and possibly an additional one in western Wisconsin.
Survey crews are headed out to the Scandia area of Washington County, the vicinity of Silver Lake in McCleod County, and the area near Luck in Polk County, Wisconsin. They will assess the damage, confirm it was caused by tornadoes and attempt to determine the category of those twisters.
Tornado Warnings popped up beginning Sunday at about 3:20 p.m. and lasting until about 5:30 p.m., starting in McLeod County and spreading to Benton, Sherburne, Anoka, Chisago and Isanti.
The confirmed tornadoes were in Silver Lake and Scandia. There were earlier reports of a confirmed tornado in Foley, but the NWS says there are no reports of damage there.
In Wisconsin, the NWS said there was a possible tornado in the Luck-Milltown area of Polk County.
Initial reports said there might have been a tornado in Barron County, WI, but early Monday morning the NWS said they don't believe a tornado hit the area and likely won't send a team to investigate.
The NWS told KARE 11 they plan on sending teams to the following areas to survey damage on Monday:
- McCleod County, MN: Confirmed tornado in the Biscay/Silver Lake area
- Washington County/Chisago County, MN: Confirmed tornado west of Scandia
- Polk County: Possible tornado near Bone Lake
Tree damage and downed power lines have been reported in Luck and areas to the south near Milltown. The Polk County sheriff tells KARE 11 that they have serious damage to homes and trees, but no injuries reported. Polk Burnett Electric says about 3,000 residents are without power, according to the sheriff's office.
Trees were reported down in the area of Scandia and Forest Lake. The Polk County Fair was evacuated due to the severe weather, according to someone who answered the phone at the fairgrounds.
Xcel Energy was reporting outages affecting about 1,300 customers as of 9:20 p.m. Sunday.
