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Community Corner

Rain, Rain and More Rain

The National Weather Service says more rain is on the way for Lakeville and the rest of Dakota County.

The following statement sounds like a broken record: More rain is on the way.

The National Weather Service says more rain—and possibly more severe weather—is on the way for Lakeville and rest of Dakota County on Sunday and beyond.

Here is the weather service’s hazardous weather outlook issued at 7 p.m. Saturday.

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.DAY ONE...[SATURDAY NIGHT]

THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS...WITH DAMAGING WINDS AND HAIL...ACROSS MUCH OF THE OUTLOOK AREA TONIGHT. IN ADDITION... VERY HEAVY RAINFALL MAY OCCUR WITH THE THUNDERSTORMS...WHICH MAY LEAD TO FLASH FLOODING DUE TO THE ALREADY SATURATED GROUND.

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.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY

A FEW MORE ROUNDS OF THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED THROUGH THURSDAY...MAINLY DURING THE EVENING AND NIGHTTIME HOURS. THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ON SUNDAY ACROSS THE OUTLOOK AREA. IN ADDITION... PERIODS OF HEAVY RAIN WILL BE POSSIBLE WHICH MAY LEAD TO FLASH FLOODING AND RISES ON AREA RIVERS.

STORM IMPACT

The Twin Cities metro has yet to fully recover from severe weather on Friday and early Saturday morning. Crews on Saturday were removing downed trees and repairing storm-related damage caused by heavy rain and strong winds, media reports say.

Electric outages were of particular concern Saturday night.

As of 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Xcel Energy’s outage map reported more than 91,000 customers were without electric in Minneapolis, St. Paul and their near suburbs.

Here is a statement released on Xcel Energy’s website at 7 p.m. Saturday:

We continue to make considerable progress in the restoration effort.  Since the onset of this event 514,100 customers have experienced a power outage.  As of 7 p.m. today we have restored power to 402,500 of these customers.
We are fully dedicating all resources to restore power to the remaining 111,600 customers.

We will have approximately 400 line crews approaching a total of 1,000 workers to aid in this large restoration effort. We expect all of these crews to be working tomorrow.  In addition to the field crews, hundreds more employees are covering phones in the Call Center, dispatching the crews, managing the delivery of materials and updating communications. 

We sent a construction manager and a Control Center leader in a helicopter to patrol the distribution system.  This gave the office support vital assessment information to ready job sites before a crew arrives.  We replaced approximately 50 poles; with an additional 50 identified to be replaced; along with the poles numerous cross arms and wire has been installed in the field.

The estimated restoration time is still Wednesday. However, more heavy weather tonight and Sunday could impact restoration time.

The next update will be late tomorrow morning.

WEATHER FORECAST

Here is the weather service’s forecast for Lakeville and Dakota County for the next few days:

SUNDAY—Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 83. South southwest wind 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

SUNDAY NIGHT—Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 66. South southwest wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

MONDAY—A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 87. Calm wind becoming southwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.

MONDAY NIGHT—A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 69. South southeast wind 5 to 10 mph. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

TUESDAY—A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 91. South wind around 10 mph. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

TUESDAY NIGHT—A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 71. South wind 5 to 10 mph.

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