Minnesota

Storm History: Clay County, Minnesota

568 episodes, 823 events since 1957

Every storm the National Weather Service has filed in Clay County, Minnesota: floods, hail, damaging wind, tornadoes, winter storms, heat and the rest, with the most serious on record. Events filed by forecast zone count for every county the zone covers.

The record

Events
823
Deaths
2
Injuries
5
Damage
$68 million
Episodes
568

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

Open the live radar over Clay County

Every year

From 1996 the record holds 48 kinds of event with each office’s narrative; before that, tornadoes, hail and thunderstorm wind only, and before 1955 tornadoes alone.

By kind of event

Counted under the kind that heads each episode.

Kind of eventEventsDeathsInjuriesDamage
Tornado21303$3.8 million
Hail18702$10 million
Blizzard8400$5.0 million
Flash Flood6300$16 million
Winter Storm5500$1.3 million
Extreme Cold/Wind Chill4610
Thunderstorm Wind3900$114,000
Heavy Snow3200$75,000
High Wind2600$117,000
Flood2410$29 million
Cold/Wind Chill1500$21,000
Drought1300
Ice Storm1100$2.0 million
Frost/Freeze500
Funnel Cloud500
Excessive Heat300
Winter Weather100
Dust Storm100

The deadliest

The costliest

Damage within this county, in the dollars of its year.

The largest hail

The largest stone in each episode, which may have fallen in a neighboring county of the same episode.

The strongest tornadoes

Every tornado in Clay County, with its track

Every episode, newest first

Earlier years, state by state:

More

Tornadoes in Clay CountyEvery warning in Clay County since 1986Every county in Minnesota

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24.