Clearwater County, Minnesota: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Clearwater County, Minnesota has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 4.2 out of 100, higher than about 4% of US counties, with wildfires, drought and landslides scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $3.1 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 14 federal disaster declarations that included Clearwater County since 1974, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4659-MN (Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, and Flooding, declared 13 July 2022). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 23 tornadoes touching Clearwater County from 1950 to 2025.
Live weather alerts for Minnesota All official warnings Latest FEMA declarations
Population 8,512 Buildings worth $2.5 billion Area 1,040 sq mi Risk rank in Minnesota 84 of 87 FIPS 27029
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | 65.5 | $131,591 | about once every 365 years | — |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 60.2 | $302,680 | about 2 a year | 595 |
| Landslide | Very Low | 58.7 | $2,665 | about once every 3.8 years | — |
| Winter weather | Relatively Low | 50.5 | $69,095 | about 18 a year | 333 |
| Cold wave | Relatively Low | 34.6 | $552,595 | about 18 a year | 334 |
| Hail | Very Low | 23.8 | $92,114 | about 2.9 a year | 110 |
| Tornado | Very Low | 17.3 | $197,120 | about once every 2.4 years | 21 |
| Strong wind | Very Low | 15.4 | $136,825 | about 1.5 a year | 59 |
| Heat wave | Very Low | 12.1 | $26,468 | about once every 1.4 years | 12 |
| Inland flooding | Very Low | 10.9 | $1.5 million | about once every 2.0 years | 14 |
| Lightning | Very Low | 8.4 | $29,030 | about 28 a year | 37,718 strikes |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 5.3 | $2,630 | about once every 26 years | 2 |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 1.0 | $1,048 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Avalanche | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Coastal flooding | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Hurricane | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Tsunami | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Volcanic activity | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
Score: FEMA's percentile among US counties that face the hazard (higher = more risk). Expected loss: FEMA's modelled average yearly loss to buildings, people (as a statistical value) and crops. How often: FEMA's annualised frequency of the hazard in the county; for some hazards it counts event-days, so it is a rough guide, not a forecast. "Not Applicable" means FEMA does not model that hazard here.
Federal disaster declarations 14
Most common: Flood 6, Severe Storm 6, Hurricane 1, Drought 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 3 | Severe Storm, Drought, Flood |
| 1990s | 4 | Flood ×2, Severe Storm ×2 |
| 2000s | 5 | Severe Storm ×3, Hurricane, Flood |
| 2010s | 1 | Flood |
| 2020s | 1 | Flood |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Clearwater County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3242-MN): 87 Minnesota counties designated.
- Drought (1976, EM-3013-MN): 78 Minnesota counties designated.
- Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, and Tornadoes (2001, DR-1370-MN): 66 Minnesota counties designated.
Named storms in its declarations: Hurricane Katrina (2005).
Not counted above: 2 COVID-19 ("Biological") declarations — in 2020 every US county was included. Minnesota also had 9 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 23
| Tornadoes touching the county | 23 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F2 ×4 |
| Peak month | June (9) |
| Deadliest | 5 Jul 1978, F2, 57.5 mi path, 4 killed, 44 injured |
| Longest path | 5 Jul 1978, F2, 57.5 mi path, 4 killed, 44 injured |
| Most recent | 26 Aug 2018, EF1, 25 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 4 / 44 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 10 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 0 |
Deaths and injuries are for each tornado's whole path, which can run beyond this county. F-scale ratings before February 2007, Enhanced Fujita (EF) after.
How Clearwater County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clearwater County (this page) | — | Very Low | 4.2 | Wildfire |
| Mahnomen County | 43 km | Very Low | 7.1 | Drought |
| Beltrami County | 55 km | Relatively Low | 60.6 | Winter weather |
| Red Lake County | 63 km | Very Low | 2.2 | Drought |
| Hubbard County | 63 km | Very Low | 35.2 | Landslide |
| Pennington County | 73 km | Relatively Low | 47.0 | Wildfire |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Minnesota, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively Low 30.1 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively Moderate 49.2 |
| Community risk factor | 0.98 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $3.1 million |
FEMA scales expected losses up where social vulnerability is high (people who may find it harder to prepare, evacuate or recover) and down where community resilience is high. A factor above 1 raises the risk score. For social vulnerability a high rating is worse; for resilience a high rating is better.
Prepare for Clearwater County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Minnesota · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Wildfire: US wildfires now · Wildfire smoke: what protects you
- Drought: Drought monitor for Minnesota
- Landslide: Landslides recorded
- Your property's flood zone: FEMA Flood Map Service Center ↗ — this page cannot tell you that.
- Official preparedness guidance: Ready.gov ↗ and your county emergency management office.
What this page shows, and what it misses
FEMA's National Risk Index rates a whole county against every other US county; it is a planning-level estimate for nationwide comparison, not a flood-zone map and not a substitute for a local risk assessment or the risk to one home. Declarations are presidential disaster, emergency and fire management declarations that named this county; state declarations and SBA or USDA designations are not included. Tornadoes are counted when the county is one of up to four listed on the track; 670 tornadoes that crossed a state line carry no county list in NOAA's file and are left out.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Risk Index Dataset: National Risk Index Counties - v1.20.0 (December 2025). Retrieved from https://services.arcgis.com/XG15cJAlne2vxtgt/ArcGIS/rest/services/National_Risk_Index_Counties/FeatureServer/0/query on November 2, 2026, 1:20 PM EST. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Risk Index dataset API or downloadable datasets 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).
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries - v2, retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/api/open/v2/DisasterDeclarationsSummaries on November 2, 2026, 1:21 PM EST. 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).
Tornado records: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, Severe Weather Database, tornadoes 1950–2025 (https://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/data/1950-2025_actual_tornadoes.csv, downloaded 2 November 2026). Public domain; not endorsed by NOAA. Compiled by Global Incident Tracker.
Questions about Clearwater County
What natural disasters is Clearwater County, Minnesota most at risk from?
Clearwater County, Minnesota has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 4.2 out of 100, higher than about 4% of US counties, with wildfires, drought and landslides scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $3.1 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Clearwater County had?
OpenFEMA lists 14 federal disaster declarations that included Clearwater County since 1974, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4659-MN (Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, and Flooding, declared 13 July 2022). Another 9 Minnesota declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Clearwater County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 23 tornadoes touching Clearwater County from 1950 to 2025. The deadliest: 5 Jul 1978, F2, 57.5 mi path, 4 killed, 44 injured (deaths and injuries are for the whole path).
Is the National Risk Index a flood zone map?
No. The National Risk Index is a planning-level estimate for a whole county, built for nationwide comparison. It does not tell you the flood zone or the risk of a single property: for that, look up the address on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov) and ask your local floodplain manager.