Staff photo by Fritz Busch Leander Nachreiner, left, of Fairfax removes lilac branches Thursday that were blown down in Wednesday night’s thunderstorm. Bix Baker of Fairfax is pictured to the right of Nachreiner at the Fairfax compost site.

FAIRFAX — Chain saws buzzed in Fairfax Thursday as neighbors and tree service companies helped residents clean up from a wind, rain and hailstorm that came in multiple waves Wednesday.

Retired Gibbon Fairfax Winthrop (GFW) High School science teacher Bix Baker talked about the storm while removing lilac branches blown down by the wind.

“We didn’t have hardly any rain yet when the wind started blowing about 9 p.m. The wind was whistling like crazy. One report was 60 mph wind. After about 15 minutes, I went outside and saw trees down, some of them pretty young trees too. My lilac tree came down. The wind was so loud, I couldn’t hear much else when it blew. I measured two inches of rain,” said Baker.

Across the street from Baker, a linden tree near Nancy Blumhoefer’s house on Elm Drive blew down, the tree trunk snapping just below ground level.

“I kept looking outside last night for any storm damage from the wind that was terrible,” said Blumhoefer.

“I just want to say I have wonderful neighbors that come to help me clean it up,” she added.

A number of trees were blown down in Lion’s Park, just east of Blumhoefer’s residence. Several large tree trunks were split open on the north side of town including one at the corner of 1st Avenue N.W. and 1st Street N.W.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Tyler Hasenstein in Chanhassen said the storm came in three waves, in the afternoon, early evening and other night in much of southern and central Minnesota.

“We had some very strong thunderstorms and excellent views of thunderheads for good distances while we had daylight. The atmosphere was very unstable with all the heat and humidity,” Hasenstein said.

“High winds caused lots of trees of fall in Winthrop and Gaylord in Sibley County,” he said.

“There was flash flooding in Goodhue County and four to five inches of rain in parts of southeastern Minnesota. One to two inches of rain fell in and around New Ulm,” he added.

Wind gusts of 60 mph were reported at the Redwood Falls airport and 53 mph two miles north/northeast of Gibbon, and 51 mph at the Olivia airport, according to the National Weather Services (NWS).

Hasenstein said the storm dumped the largest hail reported in Minnesota in 55 years, nearly six inches in diameter, four miles northwest of Chokio, in Stevens County, west of Morris.

Half-dollar size hail was reported in Sibley and Renville Counties.

For more information, visit https://www.weather.gov/