Associated Press

A storm system brought strong winds, hail and some much-needed rain to parts of southwest and south central North Dakota.

Friday's storm created wind gusts of more than 60 mph in Dickinson and golf ball-sized hail in some parts of southwest North Dakota, the National Weather Service said.

Dickinson Police officer Ron Van Doorne said the high winds downed some trees in town, knocking out power to some of the city for about 45 minutes late Friday afternoon.

"We didn't get any reports of any major structure damage," Van Doorne said.

He said most of the town got pea-sized hail.

"It rained pretty hard for about a half hour," Van Doorne said. "It was just a good, heavy summer storm."

Meteorologist Todd Hamilton, at the National Weather Service in Bismarck, said the storm started in eastern Montana, and moved east into Beach on Friday afternoon.

David Ekre, of Beach, said "marble-size to big marble-sized hail" pelted his pickup as he was driving south of Golva Friday afternoon.

"It didn't dent it - it's an old pickup, I don't care anyway," he said.

Ekre said Beach didn't get hit with hail but the town got a good soaking from heavy rain.

"I'm glad it rained - we needed it," he said.

Some tree branches were down in Beach but there didn't appear to be any damage to homes in town, he said.

The storm moved east Friday night, with a severe thunderstorm watch issued by the weather service until early Saturday morning for parts of southeast and eastern North Dakota.