NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Ortonville, MN
Every tropical system within 75 miles since 1851 and every tornado within 25 miles since 1950.
Data: NOAA NHC HURDAT2 and NOAA SPC tornado and hail reports, through 2025 · Updated
No tropical storm or hurricane has passed within 75 miles of Ortonville, Minnesota since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 70 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 1 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 0
- Tropical storms
- 0
- Tornadoes
- 70
- EF3 or stronger
- 1
within 75 mi, since 1851
below hurricane strength
within 25 mi, since 1950
1 deaths in all
What the records show for Ortonville
The strongest of the 70 tornadoes within 25 miles was an F3 on May 17, 1996; its path came within 3 miles. The deadliest, an F1 on June 19, 1979, killed 1 person. Of the 70, 4 had paths within 5 miles of the city centre, and 38 have come since 2000. May has had the most tornadoes, 19. The most recent tornado was on June 28, 2025. Of the 341 Minnesota cities on this site, 67% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Ortonville. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 61 times since 1958, with stones up to 3 inches (tea cup size). Of the 341 Minnesota cities, 71% have more hail reports within 10 miles than Ortonville.
Compare Ortonville's storm record with another city →
Tornadoes within 25 miles of Ortonville
By decade
- 2020s18
- 2010s14
- 2000s6
- 1990s12(1 EF3+)
- 1980s2
- 1970s10
- 1960s3
- 1950s5
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 17, 1996 | F3 | 3 mi | 18 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Aug 3, 1979 | F2 | 4 mi | 20.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Oct 29, 1956 | F2 | 18 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Aug 28, 1955 | F2 | 17 mi | 1.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jul 8, 1951 | F2 | 21 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Jun 19, 1979 | F1 | 16 mi | 0.1 mi | 1 / 0 |
| Jun 28, 2025 | EF1 | 21 mi | 1.23 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 30, 2022 | EF1 | 23 mi | 7.17 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 30, 2022 | EF1 | 13 mi | 2.4 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 30, 2022 | EF1 | 14 mi | 4.45 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 30, 2022 | EF1 | 18 mi | 10.67 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 12, 2022 | EF1 | 18 mi | 1.08 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 12 of 70, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Ortonville
The Storm Prediction Center has 61 hail reports within 10 miles of Ortonville since 1958, made on 37 separate days. Of these, 44 were 1 inch across or larger, and 5 reached 2 inches. The largest, 3 inches (tea cup size), fell on July 5, 2016. The most recent report is from August 21, 2025. August has the most reports, 20.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Ortonville
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Artichoke Lake 1 E, MN, 14 miles east of Ortonville at 1,098 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 83°F and low of 62°F; January is the coolest, at 23°F and 3°F. July is the wettest at 4.2 inches of precipitation on average and January and February the driest at 0.8 inches; the year adds up to 26.6 inches over 52 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 6 days a year, almost all from June to July. Lows fall below freezing on about 163 nights a year. Snowfall averages 43.0 inches a year, most of it in January. That 26.6 inches is more than at 19 of the 124 Minnesota stations used on this site (15%). Milbank, SD, 13 miles southwest, has its own station (Wilmot, SD): 24.7 inches a year, 1.9 less than here, and a July average high of 82°F against 83°F.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Snow in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 23 | 3 | 0.8 | 2 | 9.1 |
| Feb | 28 | 7 | 0.8 | 3 | 8.2 |
| Mar | 40 | 20 | 1.3 | 3 | 6.4 |
| Apr | 56 | 34 | 2.3 | 5 | 4.0 |
| May | 70 | 47 | 3.1 | 7 | 0.0 |
| Jun | 79 | 58 | 3.8 | 7 | 0.0 |
| Jul | 83 | 62 | 4.2 | 6 | 0.0 |
| Aug | 80 | 60 | 3.2 | 5 | 0.0 |
| Sep | 74 | 51 | 2.7 | 5 | 0.0 |
| Oct | 59 | 38 | 2.3 | 5 | 0.9 |
| Nov | 42 | 23 | 1.2 | 3 | 5.5 |
| Dec | 28 | 10 | 0.9 | 2 | 8.9 |
| Year | 55 | 34 | 26.6 | 52 | 43.0 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Artichoke Lake 1 E, MN (1,098 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals. Normals describe the station; the farther a place is from it, and the bigger the difference in height, the more its weather can differ.
Floods, thunderstorm wind and lightning near Ortonville
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 82 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Ortonville: 66 thunderstorm wind reports, 14 floods and 2 flash floods. None is recorded as killing or injuring anyone; the NWS estimated $560,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 105 mph, on June 17, 2012.
March 17, 2019: flood 9 miles from the centre of Ortonville — $300,000 damage.
NWS: “Snow melt and a slow thaw led to numerous county and township roads to close; in total, roughly 71 sections of roadway had been closed, accumulating an estimated 81 miles. Many of these sections were washed out and damaged and required repairs.”
April 11, 2023: flood 6 miles from the centre of Ortonville — $260,000 damage.
NWS: “A combination of record setting seasonal snowfall, high snow water equivalent values, and rapid snow melt led to low lying areas, ditches, and ravines across the county to flood for a prolonged period of time.”
Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, events whose starting point is on record, 1996 to June 30, 2026. Damage is the NWS estimate in the dollars of the year, not insured losses, and NWS notes that some reports are unverified.
Flood insurance claims, disaster declarations and FEMA risk ratings
Flood insurance policyholders in Ortonville's ZIP code 56278 have filed 72 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1997, and were paid $627,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Severe flooding in 2001: 22 claims (31% of all) and $81,000, then Flooding in 1997 with 18. The year with the most claims was 2010, with 27. 56% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 120 Minnesota cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 99 have fewer than Ortonville.
| Event | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Severe flooding2001 | 22 | $81,000 |
| Flooding1997 | 18 | $295,000 |
Big Stone County, which includes Ortonville, has been named in 20 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1969, 16 of them major disasters (by incident: 9 floods, 6 severe storms, 2 biological emergencies, 1 drought). The latest major disaster declaration was Severe Storms and Flooding, on July 19, 2023. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Big Stone County a Very Low rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively Low for hail and strong wind; Very Low for tornadoes, inland flooding, lightning and heat waves. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $4.4 million a year, the 82nd highest of 87 Minnesota counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $1.7 million (39%), is from inland flooding.
Claims: FEMA, OpenFEMA Dataset FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims – v3, summed over ZIP codes; payments in the dollars of each year, not adjusted for inflation. Declarations: Disaster Declarations Summaries – v2, by county. Retrieved October 25, 2026. 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).
Risk ratings: FEMA, National Risk Index county table, December 2025 (v1.20), retrieved October 26, 2026; ratings compare counties nationwide, are meant for planning and are no substitute for a local risk assessment. 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).
What counts as a pass, the distances and the sources: how this storm history is built.
Cities near Ortonville
- Milbank, SD13 mi
- Appleton, MN21 mi
- Madison, MN23 mi
- Morris, MN29 mi
- Dawson, MN33 mi
- Sisseton, SD39 mi
- Benson, MN40 mi
- Montevideo, MN42 mi
- Canby, MN43 mi
- Starbuck, MN44 mi
- Watertown, SD45 mi
- Glenwood, MN54 mi
All Minnesota cities →All hurricanes since 1851 →Compare Ortonville with another place →