Two very wild and very different storms slammed the Sartell area on Thursday. The first happened around lunchtime and featured a ton of hail and a torrential downpour. The second storm, which happened at about 7 p.m. featured very strong winds and heavy rain with plenty of lightning.

PHOTO: Dave Overlund
PHOTO: Dave Overlund
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I got stuck in the first storm of the day on Pine Cone Road, mostly because I was gawking at the Independence Day spaceship-like cloud that was heading toward town. It looked (exaggerating of course) like it was just ten feet off the ground! I stopped in a couple spots to take some pictures and was met with a drumbeat of hail on my car for the drive home.

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When I did finally make it inside the hail REALLY started to pour. It was loud and heavy for about five to ten minutes before the sky started dumping sheets of rain like that scene from Forrest Gump.

The rest of the day was actually pretty nice. I grilled some food, the kids played outside. Pretty great Thursday really. Until the evening anyway.

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At about 630 I spotted another unreal cloud heading toward Sartell. As I went outside to pick up the lawn toys the sirens started blaring. It quickly got dark and I got a loud alert on my phone to head inside due to a tornado warning. I gathered up the family (out of bed) and we went downstairs.

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We could hear our furniture on the deck moving around but little did we know it would be blown clear across the neighborhood. The trampoline traveled almost 50 feet too, as it was positioned right next to the porch.

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