MPR’s Tom Crann talks with meteorologist Paul Huttner about dozens of tornadoes that swept across the state on June 17th. Huttner details what transpired to create the conditions for such an extreme weather scenario.
On June 17, 2010, the largest tornado outbreak on record in Minnesota produced 48 confirmed tornadoes in the state. The tornadoes produced heavy damage in northwestern, central, and far southern Minnesota, with three of them rated as EF4 (considered “devasting” on Enhanced Fujita scale). Three people died from the tornado outbreak.
Transcripts
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TOM: Well, it's 346. Time to check in with meteorologist Paul Huttner. Yesterday's tornado outbreak in the state was extraordinary. We don't know yet if it was historic. But the National Weather Service storm teams are working on surveying the damage and getting a clearer picture of what happened. Our man who guided us through it as it happened yesterday, Paul Huttner, as you look back on the day, Paul, how unique was it?
PAUL HUTTNER: Well, it was remarkable, Tom. I've never seen anything like it in 20, 25 years of doing weather in Minnesota. I know you and I were talking. We've never seen the MPR warning service so choked with severe weather warnings.
TOM: We just couldn't keep up with them at one point they were so many.
PAUL HUTTNER: It was remarkable. And it may have been historic. 35 is still the standing number on the Storm Prediction Center website through the local storm reports that are issued through Local Weather Service offices and then aggregated by the Storm Prediction Center. 35 tornadoes in Minnesota yesterday. And if that number holds, that would be the largest number of tornadoes in a single day. The biggest outbreak in Minnesota history.
The number as it stands now, 27 tornadoes back on June 16 of 1992. And of course, those Weather Service teams are out in the field right now as we speak, surveying that damage. The Twin Cities office has sent out teams to-- two teams to Freeborn County to investigate those areas in Southern Minnesota, and another team to McLeod and Wright counties. And a fourth team will visit the Mankato area. Now, Grand forks will also send out teams, and Duluth will do that as well today to try to piece this all together.
TOM: Now, what happened? What came together meteorologically speaking yesterday?
PAUL HUTTNER: Well, it was just a remarkable setup. We had several ingredients that you need for severe weather. We had warm, humid, unstable air at the surface. We had a frontal Boundary at the surface, which provides the lift for thunderstorms and the focal point. And that was draped from Grand Forks all the way through the Wadena area, down through St. Cloud, and then just West of the Twin Cities of Buffalo and Wright County down through Mankato and down toward Albert Lea. And just as a quick side note, Tom, we were so lucky that was not a little further East or those tornadoes could have been in the heart of the metro. We also had upper level support for all that to get those storms going. And synoptically speaking from a weather forecaster standpoint, this was, I guess what you would call the ideal scenario for severe weather across the upper Midwest.
TOM: Did all of the warnings go off OK? We're hearing in Wadena they had sirens. I talked to a couple of people today who say that was the case.
PAUL HUTTNER: And I've also heard that in Southern Minnesota they had sirens as well. And I have to say, and in fact, I just posted a comment on the Updraft blog, that the local and regional, National Weather Service offices shined yesterday in their handling of these tornadic thunderstorms. I think they saved many, many lives yesterday and as far as I know, warnings were issued, I think, in advance of most all of the tornadoes yesterday.
TOM: And how did that differ? Yesterday's warnings from Monday, you and I were here and we saw a few and nothing happened. Yesterday, this was the real thing.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah. Completely different meteorological situation. This was a big supercell thunderstorm day. And this was the day to be all over this thing, and they did a great job on it. Tom, those teams in the field too. They'll be out talking as they look today. They're looking for the number of tornadoes. They're looking for the path length, the path width, the EF scale, which will determine the wind. They can do that through the damage that they see. All of those things they'll be putting together in a report that will probably come out later this afternoon or maybe even tomorrow because there's a lot to do out there in the field today.
TOM: And then finally, this sidelight, once we went off the air at 9:00 o'clock, Paul, I was looking at the sky. And while here in the Twin Cities, it seemed like we were-- the threat was over-- the sky was unbelievable. It was Amber. It was dark. What was going on there?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah. That was the light playing through these towering cumulonimbus clouds with ice in them. And anytime you get ice, it refracts and reflects the light in such a way it can create that prism effect and break up the visible spectrum. That's why we're seeing a lot of those oranges and yellows in those thunderstorms near sunset last night.
TOM: Meteorologist Paul Huttner, our thanks and have a good weekend.
PAUL HUTTNER: Thanks, Tom. You too.