Minneapolis Emergency Kit — Personalized for Your Risks

Local Hazard History

Minneapolis is built for winter and still gets caught. The benchmark storm is the Halloween Blizzard of 1991, which dropped 28.4 inches on Minneapolis–St. Paul between October 31 and November 3 — still the largest snowstorm ever recorded in the Twin Cities. Cold is the more reliable threat. During the polar vortex of late January 2019, the temperature at MSP fell to −28°F on January 30, the coldest reading in the Twin Cities since 1996, with a wind chill near −55°F and twelve straight hours at or below −50°F; schools, businesses, and government offices closed for three days and the Postal Service suspended mail delivery. Snow load is its own hazard: 17.1 inches fell at MSP during the December 10–12, 2010 storm, and the weight collapsed the Metrodome's inflatable roof early on December 12. Minneapolis is also tornado country. On May 22, 2011, an EF1 tornado cut across North Minneapolis, killing one man, injuring 48, and damaging or destroying roughly 3,700 structures along a path that ran from St. Louis Park through Fridley and Blaine.

When Risk Peaks

• Dec–Feb: Peak for blizzards and life-threatening cold — polar-vortex outbreaks can drive wind chills past −50°F, as they did in January 2019
• Mar–May: Snowmelt and spring rain raise flooding risk along the Mississippi; severe-storm season begins
• May–Aug: Tornado and severe-thunderstorm peak — the North Minneapolis tornado struck on May 22
• Jun–Aug: Heat and humidity spikes, plus damaging straight-line winds
• Oct–Nov: Early-season blizzards are real — the 1991 Halloween Blizzard began on October 31
• Year-round: Extended power outages compound every one of these, so safe backup heat and light matter in every season

What to Pack for Minneapolis

A Minneapolis kit has to solve for cold that turns dangerous fast and storms that strand you at home:

• Plan to hold heat without power — at −28°F an unheated house cools quickly; keep cold-rated sleeping bags, wool blankets, hats, and gloves somewhere you can reach in the dark
• Never run a generator, grill, or camp stove indoors or in an attached garage — carbon-monoxide poisoning spikes during winter outages; keep a working CO alarm
• 3–5 days of water and no-cook food, because a blizzard can close roads long before the plows catch up
• A real car kit from November through March — blanket, boots, shovel, sand or cat litter, charger, and food; being stranded in a vehicle is how many of Minnesota's blizzard deaths have happened
• A battery or hand-crank NOAA weather radio for blizzard, wind-chill, and tornado warnings
• Know your tornado shelter — lowest floor, interior room, away from windows. Hennepin County tests its outdoor warning sirens at 1 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month, so a siren on any other day is worth taking seriously
• Keep IDs, insurance papers, and medications in a grab-and-go pouch

Local Resources

• Minneapolis Office of Emergency Management — City emergency planning, alerts, and preparedness guidance for residents.
• Hennepin County Emergency Management — County-wide disaster coordination, siren information, and hazard planning.
• NWS Twin Cities — Local forecasts, blizzard and wind-chill warnings, and tornado watches.
• Ready.gov — Federal all-hazards guidance for winter storms, extreme cold, and tornadoes.