Weekend storms bring much-needed rain across parts of Minnesota but leave trail of damage

Weekend storms brought much-needed rain across parts of Minnesota, pushing this month into the Top 10 highest rainfalls on record for August — but they caused some destruction, including damage to a Duluth church steeple that was struck by lightning.

The southern half of Minnesota saw hail, including some as large as baseballs, and a lot of tree damage resulting from Saturday's storms.

In Duluth, one of the steeples at Hope City Church, at 417 N. 3rd Av. East, caught fire when it was struck by lightning Saturday night. When the Duluth Fire Department arrived at 7:45 p.m., crews found the church's western steeple severely damaged.

"Upon arrival, debris was scattered," Assistant Chief Clint Reff said in a Fire Department Facebook post. "It looked like a bomb had exploded."

There was no fire or smoke inside but firefighters found the lightning had "damaged the structural intent" of the building's roof.

While there, crews also noticed water running down N. 3rd Av. East. A water main had broken from the impact of the lightning strike. Portions of that street were shut down for repairs.

Damage to the church is estimated at $185,000 and the building is uninhabitable until a structural engineer makes an assessment.

Minneapolis-St. Paul has now had 6.89 inches of rain in August, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), making 2021 the 10th wettest August on record.

The rain "definitely helped" the drought conditions across the state, said Melissa Dye, meteorologist for the National Weather Service, but it wasn't enough to undo the damage from earlier this summer.

"It's kind of crazy going from one of the driest to one of the wettest [months]," Dye said.

The state's precipitation is still 3 inches below average for the year, she said.

That seven inches of rain is more than the metro area received in the last three months combined, the NWS said.

More rain is expected later this week after a dry few days with temperatures in the mid- to high-70s, which is average for this time of year.

In mid-to-late September, forecasts predict an above-average amount of rainfall.