Pennington County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Pennington 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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by USGS MN (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. Apr 4, 1997Ice Storm, Pennington$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   An intense low pressure system, with center pressures around 28.8 inches, tracked from Fergus Falls to International Falls. The initial rain was accompanied by thunder and lightning in Polk county, and then changed to freezing rain as the temperature fell. One-half to one inch of ice built up on exposed surfaces. Hundreds of power poles and lines snapped due to the weight of the ice, cutting power to many homes and businesses, many of which were beginning to fight the spring flood. The wind equipment froze up on ASOS and AWOS units across northwest Minnesota, and remained frozen for 7 days. The 3 inches of liquid equivalent from the storm fell on top of a record snowpack.

2. Sep 20, 2019Flash Flood$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Streets, low spots, rivers, and basements were flooded by 4 to 9 inches of rain over a short duration of time. Cars that got stuck in the flood waters were abandoned where they stalled. Farm fields and access roads were also flooded.

3. Mar 8, 2003Cold/Wind Chill, Pennington$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…

4. Aug 31, 2002Thunderstorm Wind$20,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Large cottonwood trees were uprooted and a grain bin was demolished.

5. May 25, 2010Flash Flood$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Red Lake River at Highlanding rose six feet rapidly and crested near flood stage. Local fields and farm yards nearby were flooded as excessive runoff flowed into local ditches and streams.

6. Jul 21, 2014Flash Flood$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Over two inches of rain fell in an hour, which caused street flooding throughout the city.

7. Jul 31, 2001Flash Flood$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Street flooded was reported with numerous cars stalled.

8. Jun 2, 2017Thunderstorm Wind$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A few 4 to 8 inch diameter tree branches were blown down in farmsteads across southeast Sanders Township. Tin roofing was blown off of one farm outbuilding and some cattle pen fencing was blown down at another.

9. Apr 10, 2009Flood$5,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This flood event began for many counties in late March, then continued through April and into May. After the winter storm event that dumped up to two feet of snow over portions of the region from March 29th through April 1st, temperatures remained below normal through the tenth of the month. Luckily, there were no other big rain or snow events through this time. However, being early April, the snowpack left on the ground did continue to melt. The remaining snowpack was deepest across the Devils Lake region, the far southern Red River Valley, and in the Sheyenne River Valley. The nearly two feet of new snow in the late March winter storm event caused additional overland flooding…

10. Jul 7, 2000Flash Flood$5,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Four inches of rain fell southeast of Highlanding, where some basement flooding was reported.

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

110°FJul 12, 1936

All-time low

−50°FJan 21, 1954

Warmest night

80°FJul 8, 1936

Coldest day

−30°FFeb 2, 1996

Wettest day

4.84 inAug 28, 2002

Snowiest day

14.0 inNov 18, 1998

Hottest year

1998mean 44.7°F

Coldest year

1996mean 34.1°F

Wettest year

198136.50 in

Driest year

193611.03 in

Snowiest season

106.4 in2018-19

Station Red Lake Falls (USC00216787), 1,038 ft elevation, 16.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1914 to September 28, 2026; 91.6% 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.

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 USC00216787.
• 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.