ROCHESTER – Torrential rain and 60 mph winds slammed into Rochester and parts of southeastern Minnesota’s bluff and river country Thursday afternoon, canceling the day’s Rochesterfest events and forcing a “shelter” warning for the city’s public schools.
As gray clouds meandered overhead and rainfall filled gutters and streams, the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for several southeastern Minnesota counties including Dodge, Mower, Winona, Fillmore, Olmsted, Houston and Wabasha. The watch was in place until 8 p.m. A flood warning was in place as well.
While there hasn’t been a confirmed report of a tornado in Rochester, stormspotters south of town near the airport identified what they believed was a “rain-wrapped” rotation, possibly a tornado, but the rotation never touched the ground, said Brett Knapp, Rochester’s emergency management director.
“There was something rotating up pretty high,” he said.
A small power outage and street flooding were also reported in Rochester, where residents were on alert, huddling in basements and watching local news. In downtown, organizers canceled the weekly Thursdays on First music and food festival. Construction workers and pedestrians sheltered in concrete parking ramps Thursday afternoon as the mid-summer rains fell.
Later in the afternoon, authorities also issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Winona and Goodview, along the Mississippi River.
Randy Stocker, executive director of Rochesterfest, said he canceled events Thursday including a baseball game and concerts after seeing intense storms forecast for the region.
He also pulled the plug on festivities Wednesday night during a band’s set, saying the weather “got a little scary.”
