Benson County

Every recorded tornado

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

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 ND GS (29).

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.

Costliest events since 1996

1. Sep 1, 1999Flood, Benson$25.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   After peaking at 1444.77 feet MSL in 1998, the 1999 Devils Lake lake level rose roughly another 2 feet and fluctuated around 1447.00 feet MSL . This presented more challenges and problems to the people surrounding the lake. For the town of Churchs Ferry, which is located on the Mauvis Coulee inlet to Devils Lake, people had to decide about the fate of the entire community. Floodwaters threatened to overtake the town, or most importantly, the sewers and sewage lagoons. After some meetings, the town decided to pursue a community-wide buyout plan. This will affect all 113 people in Churchs Ferry. The town of Minnewaukan, with 401 residents, was also facing some major decisions due to…

2. Aug 1, 2001Flood, Benson$20.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Devils Lake rose to a new record stage of 1448.10 feet on August 9th. The lake now covered 129,000 acres and was beginning to flow into Stump Lake at about 20 cfs. Highway 1 near Stump Lake was close to being flooded. A total of $37.5 million has been spent on highway construction alone this year. Highway 19 was closed at the city of Devils Lake as a new bridge was being constructed. U.S. Highway 2 was partially closed as its grade was being raised and a new bridge was being built over the Mauvais Coulee near Churchs Ferry. Damages continued at the parks around the lake, especially at Grahams Island, Shelvers Grove, and Black Tiger Bay. High water levels flooded basements in the…

3. Apr 21, 1997Flood, Benson$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Snowmelt caused lakes, coulees, and ditches to fill with water, running toward Devils Lake. The 3 coulees running into Devils Lake experienced record flows. 80 percent of the county roads were estimated to be under water at some point. An Edmore woman, driving across a flooded road, ended up in the ditch. She was able to get out of her car and stand on the roof, spending an hour in rapidly moving water until she was rescued. A dam on Hurricane Lake was stressed on the 23rd due to high water, causing some evacuations in Leeds.

4. Jun 19, 2005Thunderstorm Wind$6.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Downburst winds and tornadoes tore down 31 miles of 230 kV power transmission lines crossing far eastern Pierce and western Benson counties. The 25 mile section from the Pierce county line to 2 miles northwest of Minnewaukan was blown down between 5:00 am to 5:20 am CDT by winds of 90 to 110 mph. The Great River Power Company estimated property loss in Benson county at $6.45 million.

5. Apr 5, 1997Blizzard, Benson$6.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   With falling temperatures on the back side of the low, the freezing rain turned to ice pellets and then to snow. A strong pressure gradient created winds up to 65 mph, dropping visibilities down to zero. The strong wind, on top of heavy ice accumulations, caused thousands of power poles to snap. This cut power to over 100,000 people in eastern North Dakota and northwest Minnesota and resulted in $30 million in damages just to the power infrastructure. A 2,060 foot television tower collapsed near Galesburg on April 5th. With power cut, many people had to seek shelters with generator power in order to keep warm. Some smaller communities were without power for more than a week. Most…

6. Apr 4, 1997Ice Storm, Benson$6.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   An intense low pressure system, with center pressures around 28.8 inches, tracked from Fergus Falls to International Falls, Minnesota. The initial rain was accompanied by lightning and thunder in southern Grand Forks county, and then changed to freezing rain as the temperature dropped. One-half to 2 inches 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 reporting systems on the AWOS and ASOS sites across eastern North Dakota froze in place, remaining out for 7 days. The three inches of liquid equivalent from the…

7. Jun 1, 2009Flood$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Devils Lake and Stump Lake continued their modern day historic rise through the month of June. By the end of June, Devils Lake had risen to about 1450.60 feet MSL and Stump Lake had risen to about 1450.50 feet MSL. The rising lake levels resulted in a flurry of new discussions about dikes, safe drinking water, lake outlets, building up roadbeds, and buying out homes. Price tags on any of these projects were usually in the millions of dollars.

8. Jul 23, 1997Flood, Benson$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Devils Lake reached an elevation of 1442.8 feet MSL, continuing its record high levels. High water continued to close portions of Highways 57 and 20 south of the city of Devils Lake. Forestry officials estimated that 900,000 trees had been killed in the past 5 years due to high water levels, 200,000 of those trees just in the past 2 years. Homes and businesses close to the rising lake were moved to higher ground.

9. Jul 1, 2009Flood$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The month of July brought a reprieve to the lake rise on Devils Lake and Stump Lake, with most areas across the state receiving below normal precipitation amounts. This allowed the levels on both lakes to drop about 0.20 feet MSL during the month, falling to about 1450.40 feet MSL by July 31st.

10. Aug 11, 2000Thunderstorm Wind$1.0 million
    National Weather Service narrative

    Wind damage also occurred around the Fort Totten area. Several planned housing developments under construction sustained heavy damage. The Spirit Lake Casino also reported some damage.

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

107°F2 times, most recently Aug 7, 1983

All-time low

−39°FFeb 1, 1996

Warmest night

76°FJul 20, 2011

Coldest day

−24°FJan 14, 1972

Wettest day

4.08 inSep 21, 2019

Snowiest day

27.0 inOct 14, 2019

Hottest year

1987mean 45.5°F

Coldest year

2019mean 36.7°F

Wettest year

199329.71 in

Driest year

197611.61 in

Snowiest season

118.3 in2022-23

Station Carrington 4 N (USC00321362), 1,560 ft elevation, 35.5 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1967 to October 16, 2026; 88.0% 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 USC00321362.
• 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.