Waseca County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Waseca County: 6.
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.

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 (27).

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. May 19, 1996Thunderstorm Wind$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Semi-trailer trucks and airplanes flipped over. Trailer home destroyed. Roof partially torn off high school. Damage estimate for entire county.

2. Sep 23, 2010Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous roads were closed due to excessive rainfall that fell on September 22nd and 23th. The major areal flooding didn't recede until late Saturday when most of the small streams and creeks had crested and only mainstem rivers remained flooded. In New Richland, Minnesota, Highway 30 and Highway 13 were closed, making it impossible for the roughly 1,000 residents to get out of town.

3. Aug 31, 2010Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Two large hog barns were blown down northeast of Waldorf, Minnesota.

4. May 11, 2022Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A large machine shed was blown apart and other outbuildings had some roof damage. Several dozen trees were also toppled as the downburst moved northeast through the small community of Otisco and then to a farm northeast of Otisco.

5. Mar 19, 2012Tornado$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An EF-0 tornado touched down just south of Elysian Lake Road, just south of 412th Avenue, in northern Waseca County. The tornado tracked north for approximately 2.8 miles while paralleling the eastern shore of Elysian Lake and Elysian Lake Road. It crossed Elysian Lake near 427th Ave, before moving into southern Le Sueur County. ||Damage was primarily associated with uprooted trees and roof damage. The worst damage occurred to a farmstead which had a metal storage shed collapse along Elysian Lake Road. ||Based on trees uprooted and structural damage to a metal storage shed, winds were estimated around 80 mph.

6. Jun 2, 2020Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A large church steeple was blown over, landing in the parking lot.

7. May 8, 2014Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Many large trees and power poles were snapped off from south to north across the city of Waseca. Also, a large grain bin was destroyed north of Waseca.

8. Apr 12, 2022Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Reports of sporadic wind damage occurred from near the Waldorf area, northeast to rural areas of Janesville, hitting a few outbuildings. One broken power pole was reported north of Waseca.

9. Aug 21, 2003Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Roof partially blown off home. Barn blown down. Numerous trees and large branches down.

10. Apr 10, 2019Winter Storm, Waseca$25,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Several waves of precipitation occurred across the county with heavy snow at the start, with a mixture of sleet, rain and snow during the overnight hours before transitioning to mainly light snow, drizzle, and freezing drizzle Wednesday, and Thursday. Snowfall totals averaged 6 to 8 inches across the county. ||The other significant weather element was the combination of high winds and ice coated trees and power lines. This led to widespread downed tree limbs, and power poles.

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

106°F2 times, most recently Jul 14, 1936

All-time low

−37°FJan 5, 1924

Warmest night

79°F2 times, most recently Jul 19, 2011

Coldest day

−21°FDec 24, 1983

Wettest day

7.64 inSep 22, 2016

Snowiest day

15.0 inMar 24, 1966

Hottest year

1931mean 50.8°F

Coldest year

1917mean 39.9°F

Wettest year

201656.24 in

Driest year

197617.43 in

Snowiest season

105.5 in1983-84

Station Waseca S Rsch & Outreach Center (USC00218692), 1,147 ft elevation, 1.4 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1915 to October 21, 2026; 99.7% 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 USC00218692.
• 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.