There's an elevated fire risk for much of Minnesota.  Red Flag warnings are in place for much of south Minnesota and northwest Iowa
     It's blamed on low humidity and high winds.  Winds will be breezy for the next couple days with gusts towards 35 mph.
     Any burning outside of a recreational camp fire is strongly discouraged and with any burning, extreme care will be needed.

     Today marks the official start of spring.  But already, a few places got their first taste of severe weather on their final day of winter.
     Damage reports are not widespread but there were some reports of roofs torn off and power knocked in Elysian, that's northeast of the local area near Mankato.

     Closer to home, a few communities saw strong winds.  A wind gust of 58 mph was reported at the airport in Rochester Intl. Airport.  63 mph was recorded in Mason City.

     A semi was toppled by winds near Dexter.

     Two miles north of Albert Lea a grain bin was shifted off it's foundation by strong winds.  It's pictured above.

     In Glenville, a power pole fire caused an outage for nearly 400 people.

     Also tree limbs in a few communities sustained some damage.

It's the winter that hasn't been winter.  This Winter (December-February) in SE Minnesota is so far the 2nd warmest all time seeing an average temperature of 24.7°. The warmest was back in 01-02 at 25.1°. There's still 13 more days left to this month and with mild temperatures ahead we could break the alltime record.  Temperatures only need to make up 0.4° on average.

Here's the list: