Stearns County, Minnesota: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Stearns County, Minnesota has a Relatively Moderate natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 87.6 out of 100, higher than about 87% of US counties, with strong winds, hail and tornadoes scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $79 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 11 federal disaster declarations that included Stearns County since 1965, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4658-MN (Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Tornadoes, and Flooding, declared 8 July 2022). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 57 tornadoes touching Stearns County from 1950 to 2025.
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Population 158,160 Buildings worth $48 billion Area 1,404 sq mi Risk rank in Minnesota 6 of 87 FIPS 27145
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strong wind | Relatively High | 97.6 | $5.3 million | about 3.2 a year | 124 |
| Hail | Relatively High | 96.5 | $4.3 million | about 4.9 a year | 188 |
| Tornado | Relatively High | 93.0 | $11 million | about once every 1.1 years | 37 |
| Winter weather | Relatively High | 92.3 | $557,729 | about 19 a year | 351 |
| Inland flooding | Relatively Moderate | 90.9 | $48 million | about once every 1.3 years | 22 |
| Lightning | Relatively High | 86.5 | $1.1 million | about 33 a year | 203,953 strikes |
| Cold wave | Relatively Moderate | 86.3 | $6.2 million | about 13 a year | 242 |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | 76.3 | $335,987 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Heat wave | Relatively Low | 74.6 | $1.3 million | about 2.6 a year | 42 |
| Ice storm | Relatively Moderate | 72.3 | $284,260 | about once every 2.2 years | 31 |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | 67.2 | $5,139 | about once every 4.4 years | — |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 57.2 | $266,099 | about 6.8 a year | 350 |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 24.9 | $51,020 | 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 11
Most common: Flood 5, Severe Storm 4, Hurricane 1, Drought 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 3 | Flood ×3 |
| 1970s | 1 | Drought |
| 1990s | 2 | Flood, Severe Storm |
| 2000s | 2 | Hurricane, Flood |
| 2010s | 2 | Severe Storm ×2 |
| 2020s | 1 | Severe Storm |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Stearns County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3242-MN): 87 Minnesota counties designated.
- Drought (1976, EM-3013-MN): 78 Minnesota counties designated.
- Flooding (1969, DR-255-MN): 70 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 57
| Tornadoes touching the county | 57 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F3 ×2 |
| Peak month | June (16) |
| Deadliest | 15 May 1998, F1, 9 mi path, 1 killed, 30 injured |
| Longest path | 22 Jul 1967, F2, 16.4 mi path, 1 killed, 12 injured |
| Most recent | 15 May 2025, EF0, 2.8 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 4 / 73 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 33 | 16 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 7 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 13 | 5 |
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 Stearns County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stearns County (this page) | — | Relatively Moderate | 87.6 | Strong wind |
| Meeker County | 48 km | Very Low | 27.0 | Hail |
| Benton County | 50 km | Relatively Low | 51.3 | Hail |
| Kandiyohi County | 54 km | Relatively Low | 51.4 | Strong wind |
| Morrison County | 58 km | Relatively Low | 66.9 | Lightning |
| Todd County | 62 km | Very Low | 37.7 | Wildfire |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Minnesota, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively Low 24.1 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Very High 96.2 |
| Community risk factor | 0.92 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $79 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 Stearns County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Minnesota · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Strong wind: Power outages now
- Hail: Weather alerts for Minnesota
- Tornado: Is there a tornado warning now?
- 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 Stearns County
What natural disasters is Stearns County, Minnesota most at risk from?
Stearns County, Minnesota has a Relatively Moderate natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 87.6 out of 100, higher than about 87% of US counties, with strong winds, hail and tornadoes scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $79 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Stearns County had?
OpenFEMA lists 11 federal disaster declarations that included Stearns County since 1965, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4658-MN (Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Tornadoes, and Flooding, declared 8 July 2022). Another 9 Minnesota declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Stearns County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 57 tornadoes touching Stearns County from 1950 to 2025. The deadliest: 15 May 1998, F1, 9 mi path, 1 killed, 30 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.