Waconia

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond this area.
2. Weak tornadoes were under-recorded before Doppler radar coverage became national in the early 1990s, so earlier decades read low. Ratings use the Fujita scale before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after.

Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, 1950 to 2025.

Every large fire

1. Large fires mapped by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program since 1984: 1,000 acres or more in the West, 500 or more in the East. Prescribed burns are excluded. Acres here are the part of each perimeter inside this place.

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), 1984 to 2026.

Smoke overhead

1. A smoke day is a date on which a smoke plume traced by NOAA Hazard Mapping System analysts from satellite imagery covered this place's point (the county's population centre or the city centre). Counts here are of medium or heavy smoke. Since 2018 analysts have often drawn light smoke as one area over most of the continent, so light-smoke counts are not comparable from year to year. The plumes show smoke anywhere in the air above, not air quality at the ground, and smoke hidden by cloud is missed.

NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, 2011 to 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Flood insurance figures are for Carver County, the county that contains Waconia.

Claims by ZIP code

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026. NOAA Storm Events through 2026.

River crests

River gauges in Carver County, the county that contains Waconia.

River gauges

1. Crests are the highest and the recent crests the National Weather Service lists for each river gauge in the county that has a flood stage, not every flood. Flood categories use each gauge's current flood stages; crests from before levees, dams or channel changes may not be comparable. Crests measured on an old datum are left out of the rankings.

NOAA National Water Prediction Service gauge records, retrieved October 30, 2026.

The drought index is for Carver County, the county that contains Waconia.

1. The Palmer Drought Severity Index is computed by NOAA each month from the county's average temperature and precipitation, relative to the county's own climate. Zero is normal; -3 or lower is severe drought and -4 or lower extreme drought. It describes the long-term balance of moisture, not water supply or crop losses.

NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, 1895 to September 2026, issued October 6, 2026.

1. Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Catalog since 1900. Within 50 miles means the epicentre lies within 50 miles of the city centre.
2. Small earthquakes were under-recorded before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s and are still missed in remote areas, so early decades read low. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them and mix scales (moment, local and body-wave).

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, 1900 to present, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Mapped landslides

Landslides mapped in Carver County.

Mapped by USGS MN (259).

1. Landslides mapped in the USGS compilation of landslide inventories across the United States (version 3.0, 2025), rated probable or better. The compilation joins inventories made by federal and state agencies for different purposes and areas, so the number mapped in a county reflects how closely it has been surveyed as much as how often its slopes fail. An area with few records may simply not have been mapped. Deaths are as recorded in the inventories; a slide listed in two inventories is counted once.

USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0, retrieved October 27, 2026.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jun 11, 2001Hail$15.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Fell on the north side of Lake Waconia. Damage total is for all wind and hail damages in Carver County between 1620 and 1640.

2. May 30, 1998Thunderstorm Wind$9.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Roof torn off building injuring 2. South wall of building center blown out. Damage estimate for entire county. Estimated windspeed.

3. Jun 18, 2014Flood$9.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several sources in Carver County compiled a summary of flood related damages and locations for the flood of June 2014. More than 30 local and county roads were closed due to flooding, including the communities of Chaska, Mayer, Hollywood, Camden, Dahlgren, Young America, Laketown and Watertown. ||The Spring Creek levee failed in Carver. It caused significant mud slides affecting five private properties. In Cologne, 3 private residents had basement flooding. In Victoria, 6-8 homes had flooded basements. In Waconia, 4 homes had flooded basements. ||There were numerous county parks closed and several area lakes had no wake zones due to high water levels. ||During the height of the…

4. May 15, 1998Thunderstorm Wind$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Windows broken. Trees blown down. Partial structural damage to building. Scattered areas damaged to wind driven hail. Estimated windspeed. Damage estimate for entire county.

5. Jul 17, 2010Hail$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several trained spotters reported numerous dime, up to baseball size hail from north of Watertown, southeast to the southeast part of Watertown. Damage was extensive to crops and homes throughout the area.

6. May 1, 2001Hail$500,000
7. Aug 9, 2020Hail$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous sources from social media pictures, to trained spotters and official NWS observations, reported and measured very large hail for nearly 40 minutes from Victoria, eastward to the Carver, Hennepin County line. This includes some of the smaller communities between the two towns. ||The largest hailstone was measured at 2.75 inches in diameter and fell near Victoria. Two inch hail was measured at the NWS office. Due to the large hail size and almost a continuous line of storms redeveloping in the same areas, many roofs and cars were damaged.

8. Jun 17, 2012Thunderstorm Wind$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   North of the city of New Germany, severe straight-line winds caused damage to five sheds, with two completely destroyed. In addition, three corn bins were damaged, one turned over, one was wrapped around a tree, and one damaged by another falling on it.

9. Jul 17, 2015Tornado$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A storm survey indicated that an EF-1 tornado touched down in Hollywood Township in Carver County. The tornado spun up seven miles west-southwest of Watertown and continued east-northeast to two miles west-southwest of Watertown. The most damage occurred as the tornado crossed Vega Avenue where numerous trees were snapped and some minor structural damage was found. An apple orchard was also damaged with this tornado. There was a private weather station that measured a 99 mph wind gust before it blew off the roof. The path length was 5.1 miles long with a maximum wind speed of 105 mph.

10. Jul 1, 2011Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    One half of a large barn was blown down southwest of New Germany, between County Road 30 and 33. In addition, several large trees were blown down near the same area.

1. Storm Events records before 1996 cover only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail. Damage figures are as reported by the National Weather Service at the time, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 1950 to 2026, issued October 26, 2026.

All-time high

105°FJul 31, 1988

All-time low

−41°F2 times, most recently Dec 19, 1983

Warmest night

83°FJul 4, 1949

Coldest day

−18°FJan 15, 1972

Wettest day

6.04 inSep 15, 1992

Snowiest day

16.5 inDec 28, 1982

Hottest year

2012mean 48.3°F

Coldest year

1989mean 40.7°F

Wettest year

201941.81 in

Driest year

198017.51 in

Snowiest season

89.8 in2010-11

Station Jordan 1SSW (USC00214176), 900 ft elevation, 15.3 miles from the city centre. Daily records from 1949 to October 28, 2026; 89.6% of days in the last 30 years are complete. Records at a single station can differ from a city’s official threaded record, which may combine several stations.

NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily.

Declarations for Carver County.

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, retrieved October 30, 2026. Statewide declarations are not listed.

• Tornadoes NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, through 2025.
• Tropical cyclones NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 (Atlantic; Northeast and Central Pacific), through 2025.
• Wildfire USGS/USFS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, through 2026.
• Storm events NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, through 2026.
• Flood insurance OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026.
• Declarations OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Weather records NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily, station USC00214176.
• River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Drought NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, through September 2026.
• Smoke NOAA NESDIS Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Landslides USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0 (2025).
• Earthquakes USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), retrieved October 30, 2026.

Joins, thresholds and known limits are set out in the methodology. Found an error? Report it. Page built October 30, 2026.