Storm reports for July 20, 2016

In the hours before sunrise on July 21, storms swept across northern and central Minnesota with straight-line winds of 60 to 80 mph, causing extensive damage across the region.¹ Duluth was one of the hardest hit areas. An anemometer on a county government building there measured gusts near 100 mph at about 2:30 a.m. CST.¹ Power was out to 75,000 customers, and many homes went without power for as long as a week.¹ Minnesota Power, the main utility in northeast Minnesota, called the storm's damage in Duluth the worst in at least half a century.¹ Falling trees killed two campers and injured two more at a campsite near Basswood Lake, just across the border in Canada.²

Around 4 a.m. CST, the storms damaged several mobile homes on the south side of Rice Lake in Barron County, Wisconsin, where NOAA's Storm Events Database lists $250,000 in property damage.³ Just southeast of Presque Isle in Vilas County, falling trees damaged five homes.⁴ In Upper Michigan, dozens of trees fell in and around the village of Ontonagon, several of them onto homes.⁵

On the morning of July 20 in northwest Dunn County, Wisconsin, several rounds of golf ball size hail fell, and winds estimated at 61 knots (70 mph) caused structural damage to homes and farm equipment between Graytown and County Road V.^6,7 That afternoon, hail 2.75 inches across fell near Berthold in Ward County, North Dakota, where NOAA's Storm Events Database lists $100,000 in property damage.⁸