Last night (8/13/08) parts of the area saw severe weather. Depending on where you were, you may have not even known it happened as many of us were enjoying mostly sunny skies. I noticed when I was driving a friend to the airport the massive storm off to the north and east. It was still growing at this point and i could actually see the storm hit the top of the lowest layer of the atmosphere and shoot into the upper levels. I found it exciting, my friend wasn't as impressed.

Reports focus mainly on hail, which isn't surprising given the strong updrafts I was seeing. One report of 3 inch hail was received from Edgerton in Pipestone county in Minnesota. There are lost of reports of 3/4 inch hail and a few that are in the one to two inch range. There was also a lot of rotation reported. This doesn't surprise me given the radar images.

There was only one specific report of damage. A hog barn in Lake Park Iowa was reported to be partially destroyed. There was a hook echo in that area when the damage was reported. Winds were estimated at 60 mph. Also, there was some strong rotation noted by doppler radar at the same time.