Wind, rain, & hail in the Metro Friday

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While the metro area missed out on the big snows and the blizzard that hit other parts of the state, much of the Cities had some blinding rains and even some hail to start our part of the storm on Friday.  Thunder & lightning is a pretty strange site in Minnesota in November, but not record breaking by any stretch of the imagination.  And while we didn’t set any rainfall records for the date, the amount of time it took to pick up the nearly inch totals that many of us saw was rather impressive. 

After the thunderstorms went by, then it was all about the colder air arriving on some very strong winds.  In fact, MSP Airport reported the highest wind gust in the state and one of the highest reported gusts at the airport in several years.  Not a bad feat considering winds over 55mph are typically associated with thunderstorms.  Not this time as the atmosphere was set up just right to allow the cold air to rush in much faster than even the strongest cold front can allow.  These winds allowed temperatures to plummet from the upper 40s to near freezing in just a couple hours’ time.

The images at the top of this page show the highs across the area from Friday along with peak wind gusts and then liquid precipitation totals in the metro… with the majority of it being rain because there was so little snow at the end.