Confirmed: Tornado touched down in northern Minnesota

A National Weather Service survey team will be in St. Louis County in northern Minnesota on Friday to assess damage and try to determine the strength of a twister that touched down Thursday afternoon.

“It was a confirmed tornado,” said Krystal Lynum, a meteorologist with the NWS office in Duluth.

Numerous photos and videos posted online showed the tornado that felled trees near Bug Creek Road just east of Cotton, and as it crossed Hwy. 53 near Canyon between 4:45 and 5:30 p.m., Lynum said.

Shingles were torn from a two-story home and debris was strewn near Cotton, the NWS reported.

“Fortunately, a remote area with few buildings,” St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay wrote in a Facebook posting. No injuries were reported, he said.

The two small towns are about 40 miles northwest of Duluth.

While not unprecedented, a September tornado in northern Minnesota is rare, Lynum said.

“Usually severe weather starts to end the last part of August, but it’s been so warm we are seeing severe weather in September.”

One of the strongest September tornadoes to hit St. Louis County was an EF2 twister on Sept. 6, 1959, according to the Tornado Project.

Hail an inch and a half in diameter damaged cars on Interstate 35 near Mahtowa in Carlton County, a trained weather spotter reported to the NWS.

Strong winds toppled trees near Hudson, Wis., and hail larger than 1 inch in diameter fell across parts of Dakota and Goodhue counties, the NWS said.