Lake of the Woods County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Lake of the Woods County: 0.
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.

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.

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 county boundary (or inside the county).
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.

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jun 10, 2002Flood, Lake Of The Woods$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rainfall on the 9th and 10th of the month produced widespread flooding across Lake of the Woods county. The ASOS at Baudette reported 7.64 inches of rain during the two day period and an NWS cooperative observer station at Norris Camp reported 11.95 inches. There were unofficial reports of 15 inches of rain in portions of the county. The lake level of the Lake of the Woods was down prior to this rain event, so it was able to absorb most of the runoff easily, which many believed saved the area from greater damage. Highway 11 was closed due to high water between Warroad and Baudette. 200 homes reported some sort of water damage. Two men were injured when their pickup hit a…

2. Jul 22, 2013Thunderstorm Wind$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A microburst damage area was produced across the northeast quarter of section 30 in Rapid River Township. The downburst initiated across the southwest corner of a farmstead and projected to the east and northeast across the farmyard. A steel pole shed was torn open and demolished with debris impacted and denting several steel grain bins along the east end of the yard. Several pine trees and two power poles in the yard were snapped by the wind. Peak winds were estimated at 95 to 105 mph.

3. Jul 1, 2001Flood, Lake Of The Woods$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   High water on Lake of the Woods and the Rainy River caused major damage to numerous resort and home owners. Docks were covered in water and several resort owners hauled in rocks to prevent further erosion of their lakefront property.

4. Jul 31, 2001Flash Flood$150,000
5. Jul 31, 2001Tornado$100,000
6. Jul 31, 2001Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Trees were blown down and a roof was torn off a mobile home.

7. Jul 31, 2001Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several roofs were heavily damaged and trees were blown down.

8. Jul 31, 2001Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Signs were blown down and pieces of a roof torn off.

9. Jul 18, 2001Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   At the Long Point Resort, trees fell on cabins, homes, boats, and powerlines.

10. Mar 8, 2003Cold/Wind Chill, Lake Of The Woods$21,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A fairly compact ridge of high pressure brought clear skies and brisk west/northwest winds to portions of northwest and west central Minnesota. High temperatures on the 8th were only in the single digits above and below zero. The west/northwest winds of 15 to 25 mph with a few gusts to 35 mph kept temperatures from plunging too far, yet overnight temperatures did drop to 10 below to 20 below zero (or about 30 degrees below normal). This dropped wind chill temperatures to 40 below to 50 below zero for a prolonged period the night of the 8th into the morning of the 9th. With only a few inches of snow left on the ground (mostly in sheltered areas), these extreme wind chill…

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

98°F2 times, most recently May 11, 2025

All-time low

−41°F2 times, most recently Jan 17, 2005

Warmest night

75°FJul 13, 2026

Coldest day

−21°FJan 30, 2019

Wettest day

5.50 inJul 31, 2001

Hottest year

2024mean 45.5°F

Coldest year

2013mean 35.9°F

Wettest year

201429.02 in

Driest year

20239.82 in

Station Baudette International Airport (USW00094961), 1,082 ft elevation, 6.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1996 to October 26, 2026; 99.2% 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.

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.

Neighbouring counties

• 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 USW00094961.
• 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.
• 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.