Lake 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 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.

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

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.

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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by USGS MN (181), NASA (1).

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 19, 2012Flash Flood$1.9 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Six to 10 inches of rain fell overnight on the 19th and during the following day, resulting in stream and river flooding. Many driveways were washed out. The Knife River flooded Highway 61 and resulted in evacuations in the town of Knife River. Other smaller state and county roads were washed out. Water was flowing across Highway 61 on the northeast end of Two Harbors.

2. Mar 23, 2009Ice Storm, Southern Lake$815,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   FEMA assistance to Lake County totalled over $800,000. $360,000 went towards electrical utility repair. $150,000 of the funds went towards trail debris clearance for snowmobile, ATV, hiking and ski trails. The remainder went towards highway, street and road department debris clearance in about a 500 square mile area of the county. Personal property damage was minimal, and roughly estimated at $15,000.

3. Jul 6, 2013Lightning$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A lightning strike caused a fire that destroyed Finland's only church.

4. Jun 19, 2012Flash Flood$191,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   There was six inches of water over Highway 61 at the junction with Highway 1 due to the flooding of the west branch of the Baptism River. There was also significant flooding of the golf course at Beaver bay and of Rockwood Road at Silver Bay, due to flooding of the Beaver River and Palisade River, respectively.

5. Jul 19, 2003Hail$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The hail, in addition to high winds, damaged fifty vehicles and blew out screens and windows at Kawishi Lodge on Lake One. A lodge employee was injured when a hailstone struck his head. At the Lake One entry point to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness hail and downed trees damaged vehicles.

6. Jun 18, 2024Flood$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flood waters from Weiss Creek were flowing over Minnesota Highway 1 with half the roadway washed away at the time of the survey visit around 9:30AM CST. The roadway was closed at the time of the visit.

7. Sep 5, 2023Thunderstorm Wind$5,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Many large trees were snapped off ten feet above the ground with trees nearby uprooted in areas with thin or wet soils. One tree limb was through the metal roof of a cabin.

8. Jul 26, 2021Thunderstorm Wind$5,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The top part of a healthy pine tree was knocked over by the wind and punctured a garage roof.

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

99°F3 times, most recently Aug 14, 1961

All-time low

−36°F4 times, most recently Feb 2, 1996

Warmest night

73°FAug 6, 2001

Coldest day

−15°F2 times, most recently Jan 18, 1994

Wettest day

10.45 inJun 20, 2012

Snowiest day

24.0 inNov 2, 1991

Hottest year

1931mean 45.5°F

Coldest year

1904mean 36.7°F

Wettest year

190943.24 in

Driest year

191314.75 in

Snowiest season

127.4 in1996-97

Station Two Harbors (USC00218419), 625 ft elevation, 12.1 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1894 to October 27, 2026; 94.5% 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 USC00218419.
• 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.