BEMIDJI — Weather spotters confirmed a tornado touched down in northern Beltrami County on Friday, July 24.
The National Weather Service in Grand Forks, North Dakota, announced that the observed tornado touched down in Debs around 9:00 p.m., about 23 miles northwest of Bemidji.
Beltrami County Emergency Management Director Chris Muller observed damaged crops and downed trees in those areas of the county, but structure damage appeared to be minimal.
"North of Solway, there were some areas that had some more concentrated tree damage and then just west of Bemidji, right in that ... Wilton area and just south of Wilton, there were definitely some fresh trees that were down," Muller said. "Once you start getting into the blowdown area, it's still difficult to discern what was from last year versus fresh stuff."
An estimated 9 million trees were downed or damaged in what Muller described as the "once-in-a-generation" blowdown windstorm that devastated the Bemidji community in June 2025.
There were also several reports of tree damage near Kelliher.
Up to 10,000 people lost power overnight after Friday's storm, but crews from Beltrami Electric reported Saturday morning that nearly all service areas were restored.
Weather spotters reported a tornado just west of Middle River around 6:30 p.m. Friday.
The storm also brought large hail, observed in some areas of the storm's path.
Muller reports some of the hail hitting areas of Beltrami County was more than 2 inches in diameter — about the same size as baseballs.
"Sounds like Star Island [on Cass Lake] had some good hail damage, and some docks and boats flipped over, but largely pretty much just some tree damage," he said.
Two-inch hail was reported near Cass Lake and .8-inch hail near Wirt.
By Saturday morning, rain totals ranged from roughly .5 inches to 2.5 inches, with just over 2.5 inches reported in Blackduck, Gatzke and Thief River Falls.
After Sunday's intense heat in most of the state — which included real-feel temperatures up to 110 degrees in Beltrami County — humidity is expected to decrease throughout the week.
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