Another evening, another storm system. And another morning of cleaning up around the Twin Cities metro.
While Wright County saw heavy rains and winds clocked at about 55 mph as the anticipated storm system hit shortly before 9 p.m. on Monday, July 28, it didn’t pack the punch many were expecting.
That was reserved for neighbors to the south and east.
More than 30,000 customers are without power Tuesday, the day after, according to Xcel Energy. Most are in Washington and Ramsey counties, east of the Mississippi River as it flows through the metro. About 6,200 are in Hennepin County, many closer to the Plymouth and Minnetonka areas.
“This will, no doubt, go down as historical summer,” said Tom Novak of Novak Weather.com – a consulting agency that provides weather information to news outlets and the public via social media – in a briefing on July 28. “In terms of storms and rainfall events, it’s been as busy as any I can recall.”
A respite is on the horizon. Temperatures in the low 80s are set for today (Tuesday) with thermometers just climbing into the 70s for the rest of the week. Unfortunately, that may set the stage for some smoky air on Wednesday and Thursday, as winds from the north bring down Canadian air tainted by grass and forest fire smoke.
Record rains in June/July
Much of Wright County has seen record rainfall this month. July, which isn’t typically as arid as people think (the county averages 3.2 to 4.2 inches in July, though the last couple of years have been drier), has brought the county over the average precip for the 2025 calendar year.
At one weather station in St. Michael, more than 6 inches of rainfall has been measured (up to July 29 at 7 a.m.), about 75 percent more than the average. That’s after more than 10 inches of rain in June.
That particular station has St. Michael at more than 23 inches of precip, about 5 inches more than normal. And that’s after a bone dry January and February that saw no measurable precip in forms of snow or ice.
August is, at this time, looking to come in with an active pattern next week. Rain is in the forecast for several days, starting Sunday, Aug. 3.