Mother Nature pulled the curtain on the Twin Cities and surrounding communities as showers and thunderstorms rolled in early Monday afternoon. The midafternoon storm forced motorists to turn on their headlights, and lightening struck a tree and downed a power line in south Minneapolis.
With a sharp warm-up in temperatures and a dose of mugginess, thunder and rain moved in from the west and cast a dark shadow over the metro.
The National Weather Service (NWS) said the region is far from being subjected to any kind of severe weather warning, though pea-sized hail peppered parts of Monticello and Buffalo on the northwestern edge of the Twin Cities.
A break in the storminess for the metro is anticipated later in the afternoon, just as the evening commute is in full force, said NWS meteorologist Alexandra Keclik.
However, more unsettling weather is in the forecast for later Monday, and that could earn the labels of "strong and severe," Keclik added.
Paul Walsh
