Storm leaves thousands without power in central, northern Minnesota
Updated: 7:15 p.m.
A late-season winter storm brought heavy snow to parts of central and northeast Minnesota late Saturday and early Sunday, knocking out power to more than 14,000 homes and businesses.
Rain and thunderstorms switched over to snow overnight from central Minnesota northeast into the Arrowhead region. Meanwhile, strong northeast winds continued — with gusts of more than 50 mph reported at the Duluth harbor.
As of midday Sunday, Lake Country Power and Minnesota Power were reporting a combined total of more than 14,000 customers without power, with the largest outages in the Duluth, Cloquet and Moose Lake areas. Minnesota Power also reported some outages due to downed power poles in central Minnesota.
Crews worked throughout the day to restore power, with the total number of affected customers down to about 8,000 by 7 p.m. Lake Country Power reported that some of the outages may last into Monday.
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The National Weather Service reported 5.8 inches of heavy, wet snow at the Duluth airport as of 7 a.m. The Weather Service reported that thunder and lightning accompanied the snow at times overnight.
Other snow totals from around the state as of 10 a.m. included 7.5 inches at Holyoke, 5.5 inches near Mahtowa, 4.8 inches north of Two Harbors, 4.1 inches at Dassel, 4 inches near St. Cloud and Moose Lake, and an inch at the Weather Service office in Chanhassen.
A winter storm warning remains in effect until 11 a.m. Sunday for parts of northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin. Any snow or mixed precipitation is forecast to change back over to rain on Sunday and gradually end from west to east.