Gary Greff looked out his truck window and all he could say was "Oh, deer."

Well, that wasn't really all.

"Whoever shot that deer had to have one heck of a big gun to put him down," Greff added, once he had some time to think matters over.

Rather, it was a high-caliber wind that toppled the 75-foot-tall, 10-ton buck that was previously seen leaping over a fence on the Enchanted Highway in western North Dakota.

"Deer Crossing,"as it's known, is one of seven large metal sculptures created by Greff that adorn the 32-mile highway that runs south from Interstate 94 to Regent. It was felled in a thunderstorm a week ago that brought winds in excess of 70 mph to the southwestern part of the state.

Greff hopes to have the buck back up by July 1.

"That wind had a lot of force," Greff said. "I guess North Dakota weather is telling me I have to make (the sculptures) a little stronger. We'll go in and fix it, and the next time it ain't gonna go over, I'll tell you that much."

In addition to strong winds, the thunderstorms on the past two Mondays have brought much-needed rainfall to the area, a pair of tornadoes and a little hail.

The tornadoes were spotted Monday evening near Glen Ullin, but no damage was reported, the National Weather Service said. Glen Ullin and Center also received some spotty hail late Monday.

"We had varying sizes of hail - some stones were up to an inch and three quarters,"said Jim Heinert, an agent at Glen Ullin Insurance Agency. "In some places in town, a few (clients) told me their yard was all white. We do have some losses coming in, but it appears at this point that it won't be too many."

Janelle Peterson, the city director in Center, said most of that town's inch of rain fell in about an hour Monday night. The downpour caused some flooding on streets in town.

In Baldwin, the official tally was 2.2 inches of rain.

"We've got puddles all around, and it really washed everything up," Scott Werre, owner of the Baldwin Greenhouse, said. "We needed it. I've got trees and stuff outside that got watered. It was a refreshing blast. Everything greened up again."

Other rainfall reports from Tuesday afternoon:

3 Bismarck - 0.61 inches

3 Wilton - 2.35

3 Ashley - 1.20

3 Mercer - 1.13

3 Minot - 0.70

3 Carson - 0.50