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High heat brews up quick storm Monday

Staff photo by Fritz Busch Live power lines and power poles are taught on the ground, just southwest of Hanska after an afternoon lightning and windstorm dumped heavy rain in farm fields and ditches. The Hanska Fire Department responded quickly. The Brown County Sheriff’s Dept. reported several dozen power lines and power poles in farm fields, just south of 115th Street and east of County Road 13.

NEW ULM — The air temperature in New Ulm was measured at 98.1 degrees F., eclipsing the old May 28 high temperature record of 94 degrees that occured in 1969.

The new heat record was still well below the all-time New Ulm high temperature record for May of 108.5 degrees set on May 31, 1934. Another plus was the humidity rate, listed at 31 percent Monday afternoon.

Scattered rainfall, heavy in spots, dropped New Ulm’s air temperature to 68 degrees after an afternoon thunderstorm blew through the area. Several tenths of an inch of rain were reported in eastern Brown County by the NWS.

The storm was accompanied by a strong gust of wind near Hanska that knocked over dozens of power lines southwest of Hanska. Several of the power poles were snapped off near the ground, and their lines lay in the field next to the road. The damage occured just south of 115th Street and east of County Road 13.

More than an inch and a half of rain fell in northwestern Blue Earth County, southern Nicollet County and southeastern Sibley County.

The National Weather Service reported the temperature topped 100 degrees F. in the Twin Cities before thunderstorms occurred. Severe thunderstorms were reported northwest and northeast of the Twin Cities.

The NWS reported a temperature of 102.6 degrees F. at the Minnesota River Valley Sanctuary, Camp Township, Franklin; and 101.1 degrees on Highland Lane in Arlington.

Local NWS observer Victor Roepke reported a high of 98 on Monday, but the weather station at Martin Luther College recorded a high of 102 at 3 p.m..

New Ulm received 43 hundredths of an inch of rain Monday. The high temperature was 98 degrees, the low was 67, according to Roepke.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) issued an air quality alert for the Twin Cities metro and parts of central and southwest Minnesota effective until 8 p.m. Monday. The affected area included the Twin Cities metro, Mankato, St. Cloud, Albert Lea and Rochester.

The air alert did not include Brown and Renville Counties but did impact areas adjacent counties to the east.

Unhealthy ozone levels can aggravate lung diseases like asthma, emphysema, and COPD. People with those conditions may experience difficulty breathing deeply, shortness of breath, throat soreness, wheezing, coughing and unusual fatigue. People with those symptoms may use inhalers as directed.

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com

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