Torrential rain Monday adds to 2024’s totals; strong winds damage home

By Reed Anfinson
Strong straight-line winds Monday morning apparently turned over a semi-trailer tractor truck on Minnesota Highway 29 near the Swift – Chippewa County border. It also tore up a roof on a rural home just east Highway 29 along the county line.
Tornado warnings were posted for Clara City, as well as Chippewa and Renville counties as the storm moved to the southeast.
Corn fields along the Swift-Chippewa border along Highway 29 show signs of strong winds with stalks leaning over. Fields also show evidence of the heavy rains that accompanied the fast-moving storm.
When it passed through the Benson area Monday morning it brought a brief torrential rainfall that flooded streets with water over the curbs in places.
Benson received 1.32 inches of rain with much of it coming between 6:45 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Monday.
Monday’s rain brought July’s total rainfall to 3.75 inches, just over the month’s average of 3.69 inches – but there are still two weeks to go in the month.
It brought the precipitation total for the first seven months of the year to 27.64 inches, already a record with more rain likely to add to its total by the end of the month. The previous record precipitation recorded in the first seven months of the year was 1993 with 26.06 inches.

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