Powerful winds — including a tornado — that swept across parts of the upper Midwest left three people dead and a regional airport heavily damaged, while nearly 150 million Americans were under a heat advisory or warning as the weekend warms up much of the U.S.
A complex storm system wreaked havoc in parts of North Dakota, northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin, with reported tornadic activity, large hail and strong wind gusts, according to Brian Hurley, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.
Cass County Sheriff Jesse Jahner said at a press conference Saturday that two men and a woman were killed at two separate locations around the town of Enderlin, North Dakota, late Friday. Enderlin is about 57 miles (92 kilometers) southwest of Fargo. About 24,000 customers were without power in North Dakota.
Hours earlier in a post on the social media site X, the National Weather Service in Grand Forks said two deaths were attributed to a tornado that hit a home.
Tornado confirmed by National Weather Service
Timothy Lynch, lead forecaster with the NWS office in Grand Forks, said the storm had been confirmed as a tornado, but that crews were still working to determine its strength and highest wind speeds. He said the storm impacted the neighboring counties of Cass and Ransom.
“We still have people out investigating and gathering information on what happened. It was a pretty major event,” Lynch told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Heavy winds also swept across localized areas of Minnesota. The NWS reported wind gusts of up to 106 mph (171 kph) at Bemidji Regional Airport overnight.
“I cannot ever recall hearing a rushing wind like that!” Bemidji Mayor Jorge Prince posted on Facebook in the early hours Saturday. “Emerged from our basement to find our neighborhood with lots of trees down and several homes with severe damage.”
Prince also said officials were responding to many knocked down power lines and several gas line leaks. Beltrami County Emergency Management said the damage to the Bemidji area is “extensive.” Many Bemidji-area businesses posted on social media Saturday saying they were without power and closed for the day.
Nearly 34,000 customers in Minnesota were without power, according to poweroutage.us.
Hurley said that same storm is traversing across parts of Michigan but is weakened. It will cross over lower Ontario, Canada, and back into the United States to hit upstate New York on Saturday night into Sunday.
“Still wind and hail threat,” Hurley said of the enhanced risk to upstate New York. “It doesn’t look like it’s going to be as robust perhaps as we saw last night.
Millions face extreme heat
Almost 59 million Americans are under an extreme heat warning Saturday, Hurley said, as the high temperatures combined with humidity push an above-average heat index for the Northern Plains and the Midwest.
Parts of Nebraska, the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa could face temperatures “easily 20 degrees above normal,” Hurley said, including some areas reaching the triple digits. It may be expected in July, he said, but it’s rarer to see in June.
“A lot of these areas have been pretty cool with rain over the last month or so, so it’s going to be a little bit of a shock,” Hurley said.
Cooling centers were open in cities including Omaha and Minneapolis as officials warned the public of dangerously hot conditions.
An additional 84 million people were under a heat advisory as forecasters expect the extreme weather to migrate eastward toward the Great Lakes, the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, where the “heat risk category is a 4 of 4” into early next week, Hurley said.
Meanwhile, parts of the Great Basin and the Southwest may be hot but are seeing relief from below-normal temperatures.
