By Paul Walsh

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Two tornadoes touched down late Sunday in south-central Minnesota, with hundreds of acres of crops flattened and utility poles damaged or destroyed by one of the twisters. There were no reports of injuries.

The twisters were part of a swath of stormy weather in various part of southern Minnesota and northern Iowa.

One tornado was reported about 10:25 p.m. by a trained spotter for the National Weather Service (NWS). The spotter detected it between Lake Crystal and Judson.

A second one popped up about 10 minutes later roughly 6 miles north of Lake Crystal, the NWS said.

“Several power poles were damaged or destroyed, and approximately 600 acres of crops were flattened in that area,” a statement from the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Office read.

Elsewhere in that part of the state, strong winds uprooted trees and pulled down power lines in Blue Earth and Nicollet counties.

Hail 4 inches in diameter was reported in Winthrop and Lafayette, and up to 2 1/2  inches in diameter in Gibbon, the Weather Service added.

Strong winds from a thunderstorm peeled the roof off a hog barn northeast of Courtland.

Closer to the Twin Cities, a thunderstorm downed trees about 2 miles east of Prior Lake, the NWS said.