THE WEATHER BEAT · OCT 29

One weak tornado near Danbury, Wisconsin, inside Wednesday's 5 percent line, and hail to 3 inches in Minnesota

Wednesday's reader check answered: one preliminary tornado over Love Lake near Danbury, Wisconsin, with no damage reported, and a measured 3.00 inch.

By the Weather Rock October 29, 2026, 7:04 a.m. · 7 min read

GOES satellite view of the event region — GOES view of Minnesota and Wisconsin late Wednesday afternoon, October 28. Image: NOAA GOES-East GeoColor via NASA GIBS, 2026-10-28 22:30Z.

Key points

Wednesday's storms in Minnesota and Wisconsin left one preliminary tornado report. It came 3 miles southeast of Danbury, Wisconsin, at 5:40 p.m. CDT, inside the Storm Prediction Center's 5 percent tornado line from that morning.
The Duluth office wrote it up as weak, brief rotation over Love Lake. It kicked up branches, leaves and water, and there was no damage as of the 6:03 p.m. report.
Hail was the bigger story. The largest preliminary report was 3.00 inches, 2 miles southwest of Grove City, Minnesota, at 1:53 p.m. Severe storms are not forecast anywhere in the country today.

Yesterday

Wednesday morning's question was whether the clouds would win. The Twin Cities office had called the setup "a highly conditional threat." The Storm Prediction Center's 11:20 a.m. CDT outlook drew a 5 percent tornado area from the west side of the Twin Cities metro northeast into Wisconsin. By evening the answer was close to what both had said. One tornado was reported inside the line, and it was a small one.

It touched down in Burnett County, Wisconsin, 3 miles southeast of Danbury, at 5:40 p.m. The report came from the public. NWS Duluth describes "weak, brief rotation on the ground, kicking up small branches, leaves, and water as the rotation passed over Love Lake." It listed no damage as of 6:03 p.m. Trained spotters also reported two funnel clouds that did not count as tornadoes. One was at Randolph, Minnesota, just before 5 p.m., and the other was 2 miles south of Hammond, Wisconsin, at 5:30.

The afternoon belonged to hail. Storms crossed central Minnesota from Granite Falls through Kandiyohi and Meeker counties after midday. The largest stone was a measured 3.00 inches, 2 miles southwest of Grove City at 1:53 p.m. That spot is west of the tornado line but inside the outlook's broader hail area. Around 5 p.m. a second cell over Dakota County, south of the Twin Cities, produced 1.75 inch hail 3 miles west of Miesville. It also snapped a pine tree at Hillcrest Cemetery south of Hampton. At 6:48 p.m. the Bayfield County dispatch center reported multiple trees down around Cable, Wisconsin.

Time (CDT)	Event	Place	Size or note	Source	Inside 5% tornado line
12:36 p.m.	Hail	Granite Falls, Yellow Medicine MN	1.00 in (est.)	Public	No
1:21 p.m.	Hail	4 NW Blomkest, Kandiyohi MN	1.00 in (est.)	Public	No
1:25 p.m.	Hail	4 N Blomkest, Kandiyohi MN	1.00 in	Public	No
1:53 p.m.	Hail	2 SW Grove City, Meeker MN	3.00 in	Public	No
1:55 p.m.	Hail	Grove City, Meeker MN	1.00 in	Public	No
2:27 p.m.	Hail	Kimball, Stearns MN	0.75 in	Fire dept.	No
3:36 p.m.	Hail	3 SE Avon, Stearns MN	0.88 in	Public	No
4:00 p.m.	Hail	Mora, Kanabec MN	1.00 in	Trained spotter	No
4:00 p.m.	Hail	2 E Sauk Rapids, Benton MN	0.70 in	Fire dept.	No
4:05 p.m.	Wind gust	5 SW Gilman, Benton MN	57 mph	Public	No
4:21 p.m.	Hail	4 W Hinckley, Pine MN	0.70 in	Trained spotter	No
4:28 p.m.	Hail	2 E Pease, Mille Lacs MN	0.75 in	Trained spotter	Yes
4:57 p.m.	Funnel cloud	Randolph, Dakota MN		Storm chaser	Yes
5:00 p.m.	Wind damage	1 S and 2 S Hampton, Dakota MN	Pine tree and limbs snapped; outbuilding roof damage	Trained spotter, public	Yes
5:06, 5:08 p.m.	Hail	New Trier, Dakota MN	1.50 in (two reports)	Trained spotter, public	Yes
5:10 p.m.	Hail	3 W Miesville, Dakota MN	1.75 in	Trained spotter	Yes
5:10 p.m.	Hail	3 NW Miesville, Dakota MN	1.25 in	Trained spotter	Yes
5:17 p.m.	Wind damage	3 W Miesville, Dakota MN		Trained spotter	Yes
5:30 p.m.	Funnel cloud	2 S Hammond, St. Croix WI	Brief, along Highway T	Trained spotter	Yes
5:40 p.m.	Tornado	3 SE Danbury, Burnett WI	Weak, brief, over Love Lake; no damage as of 6:03 p.m.	Public	Yes
6:48 p.m.	Wind damage	1 NE Cable, Bayfield WI	Multiple trees down	911 call center	No

Sources: NWS Twin Cities/Chanhassen and NWS Duluth Preliminary Local Storm Reports, Wednesday, October 28, issued 12:35 p.m. to 8:51 p.m. CDT. SPC Day 1 probability points, PTSDY1 issued 11:20 a.m. CDT. The last column is the house's own check of each report's latitude and longitude against that outline. All reports are preliminary. Granite Falls was filed twice, and the second filing corrected the time, so it is counted once. The two New Trier reports may describe the same storm.

Today, officially

As of the Storm Prediction Center's 12:52 a.m. CDT Day 1 outlook, severe thunderstorms are not forecast anywhere in the U.S. today or tonight. The Twin Cities office had expected sunshine and highs in the 50s to lower 60s behind the front on Thursday. The wire's busiest hazard this morning is at sea: 162 Small Craft Advisories and 78 Gale Warnings. In Alaska, NWS Fairbanks and Anchorage have Winter Storm Warnings for the western Brooks Range and the northern Susitna Valley.

What the reader can check

A 5 percent tornado line means a 1 in 20 chance of a tornado within 25 miles of any point inside it. One weak report inside the line, and none outside it, is about what a low-end day looks like. Over the next few days, the Duluth office's storm reports will show whether anyone surveys the Love Lake touchdown or changes the 5:40 p.m. report.

This is a morning summary, not emergency information. For live warnings see weather.gov and your local officials, and the Storm Prediction Center for the current outlook.

The rock's live forecast for the places in this story