Severe thunderstorm watch posted for Otter Tail County until 4 a.m.

A severe thunderstorm watch covered Otter Tail County and nearby western Minnesota counties late Tuesday, with the strongest storms expected to ride east across the region through the evening and into the early morning hours. The watch was in effect until 4 a.m. on June 10, and the National Weather Service Twin Cities Forecast Office said the setup could bring damaging wind gusts, with a brief tornado or two not ruled out.

The watch also included Becker, Douglas and Grant counties, putting a wide swath of west-central Minnesota under the same threat. NWS Twin Cities said thunderstorms that developed across west-central Minnesota were continuing to move east, keeping the focus on communities in the path of the line as overnight conditions remained favorable for additional severe development.

For people in Otter Tail County, the immediate risk was not just lightning and heavy rain but fast-moving wind damage that can arrive with little warning. Downed limbs, isolated power outages and brief travel disruption were possible if storms intensified, especially on roads where visibility drops quickly after dark. The weather service’s watch criteria mean the atmosphere was primed for severe thunderstorms to develop, which is why residents were being urged to stay alert before going to bed.

The National Weather Service said the safest response to severe thunderstorm threats is to move into a well-built structure and stay away from windows. That guidance becomes especially important overnight, when warning messages can be missed and storms can reach a neighborhood faster than people expect. Residents were also told to keep tuned to local alerts and radar updates as the system moved east.

The National Weather Service Twin Cities office, based in Chanhassen, operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, year-round to monitor Minnesota weather and provide public safety support across the state and into parts of western Wisconsin. As the overnight hours stretched toward 4 a.m., that around-the-clock watch was aimed at tracking whether the storms over west-central Minnesota would remain merely threatening or turn severe before dawn.