Residents in the Brainerd lakes area who used their umbrellas Friday morning, Aug. 14, may have to get them out again in the afternoon for Part 2 of the storm rumbling through northeastern Minnesota.

Between 2-2 ½ inches of rain fell during the overnight Thursday into Friday morning in the lakes area, and a possibility of 2 more inches may fall later Friday afternoon, meteorologist Lee Britt with the National Weather Service in Duluth said about noon Friday. A weather spotter in Breezy Point called in to report 1.25 inches as of 11 a.m. Friday.

Britt — who spoke with the Dispatch during a break in the series of storms — said the second round of severe thunderstorms are expected for parts of the Northland and residents in Crow Wing County may begin to see the rain “fire up” between 3-4 p.m.

Britt said when looking at the pattern of the severe storms — it may produce damaging winds, large hail and heavy rainfall and could lead to localized flash flooding. Britt said if the second storm hits the Brainerd area in the certain locations, residents may see flooding.

The severe storms may include wind gusts as high as 70 mph and hail could be as large as 1.5 inches in parts of northwest Minnesota and parts of northwest Wisconsin. The weather service reports the severe storms could knock down trees, causing power outages and lead to hazardous conditions to campers or others outdoors Hail could cause damage to vehicles and buildings.

The first storm that rolled in during the overnight Thursday was pretty uneventful for area power companies. Brainerd Public Utilities had no outages as of noon Friday. Crow Wing Power had less than 300 outages impacting their service area as of 2 a.m. Friday. By noon Friday everyone, except four people had their power restored.

Char Kinzer, public relations manager at Crow Wing Power, said damage was minimal and the outages were mainly caused by trees down and lightning. The outages were sporadic in the lakes area and did not pinpoint any specific area in the Crow Wing Power service area.

According to the weather service Friday morning report, Brainerd is in a severe storm risk with a possibility of flash — through 1 a.m. Saturday.

Drought?

As of Aug. 4, Crow Wing and Cass counties finally made it out of the drought status. Britt said the northern portion of Crow Wing County and the eastern portion of Cass County were the last remaining portions of the two counties to come out of the drought conditions.

According to the weather service, the lakes area has received 9.78 inches of rain since June 1, compared with 9.72 inches of rain during the same time period last year. Before Friday’s rain, only .78 of an inch fell in the Brainerd area for the month of August.

Upcoming forecast for Crow Wing County:

Friday afternoon: Showers and thunderstorms likely after 5 p.m. Some of the storms could be severe. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 82 degrees. Breezy, with a south wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

There is a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 7 p.m., with a low around 53. Breezy, with a west wind of 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

Saturday: Sunny with a high near 77, with a west wind of 5-10 mph., with gusts as high as 20 mph. Saturday night low is expected to be about 54.

Sunday: Sunny with a high near 76 with a light northwest wind of about 5 to 10 mph, with a wind gust of 15 mph.