NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Rice, 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 Rice, Minnesota since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 65 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 2 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 0
- Tropical storms
- 0
- Tornadoes
- 65
- EF3 or stronger
- 2
within 75 mi, since 1851
below hurricane strength
within 25 mi, since 1950
5 deaths in all
What the records show for Rice
The highest rating among the 65 tornadoes within 25 miles is F3, reached 2 times; the most recent, on September 18, 1997, came within 23 miles. The deadliest, an F1 on May 15, 1998, killed 1 person. Of the 65, 2 had paths within 5 miles of the city centre, and 22 have come since 2000. June has had the most tornadoes, 18. The most recent tornado was on August 29, 2024. Of the 341 Minnesota cities on this site, 72% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Rice. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 103 times since 1956, with stones up to 3.5 inches. Rice has more hail reports within 10 miles than 60% of the 341 Minnesota cities.
Compare Rice's storm record with another city →
Tornadoes within 25 miles of Rice
By decade
- 2020s5
- 2010s8
- 2000s9
- 1990s13(1 EF3+)
- 1980s9(1 EF3+)
- 1970s5
- 1960s12
- 1950s4
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 18, 1997 | F3 | 23 mi | 17 mi | 1 / 1 |
| Sep 3, 1980 | F3 | 12 mi | 3.8 mi | 1 / 15 |
| Jul 22, 1967 | F2 | 19 mi | 16.4 mi | 1 / 12 |
| Mar 21, 1953 | F2 | 12 mi | 0.1 mi | 1 / 3 |
| Jun 13, 2001 | F2 | 23 mi | 4 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 18, 1997 | F2 | 9 mi | 8 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Oct 26, 1996 | F2 | 22 mi | 5 mi | 0 / 3 |
| Jun 16, 1992 | F2 | 13 mi | 0.3 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 12, 1982 | F2 | 12 mi | 0.8 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 25, 1981 | F2 | 6 mi | 3 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jun 17, 1977 | F2 | 11 mi | 0.7 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jul 18, 1970 | F2 | 3 mi | 2 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 12 of 65, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Rice
The Storm Prediction Center has 103 hail reports within 10 miles of Rice since 1956, made on 58 separate days. Of these, 67 were 1 inch across or larger, and 12 reached 2 inches. The largest, 3.5 inches, fell on June 20, 2007. The most recent report is from May 12, 2022. July has the most reports, 27.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Rice
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Collegeville St John'S, MN, 15 miles southwest of Rice at 1,210 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 81°F and low of 61°F; January is the coolest, at 21°F and 4°F. June is the wettest at 4.6 inches of precipitation on average and January the driest at 0.8 inches; the year adds up to 31.1 inches over 61 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 9 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 159 nights a year. Snowfall averages 57.4 inches a year, most of it in January. That 31.1 inches is more than at 68 of the 124 Minnesota stations used on this site (55%). Royalton, 8 miles northwest, has its own station (Little Falls 2NNE, MN): 27.4 inches a year, 3.7 less than here, and a July average high of 85°F against 81°F.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Snow in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 21 | 4 | 0.8 | 2 | 11.2 |
| Feb | 26 | 8 | 0.9 | 3 | 10.2 |
| Mar | 39 | 20 | 1.7 | 4 | 10.1 |
| Apr | 54 | 33 | 2.7 | 6 | 6.6 |
| May | 67 | 46 | 4.0 | 7 | 0.1 |
| Jun | 77 | 56 | 4.6 | 8 | 0.0 |
| Jul | 81 | 61 | 3.9 | 6 | 0.0 |
| Aug | 78 | 59 | 4.1 | 6 | 0.0 |
| Sep | 71 | 51 | 3.0 | 6 | 0.0 |
| Oct | 56 | 38 | 2.8 | 6 | 0.7 |
| Nov | 39 | 24 | 1.6 | 3 | 8.0 |
| Dec | 26 | 11 | 1.0 | 3 | 10.5 |
| Year | 53 | 34 | 31.1 | 61 | 57.4 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Collegeville St John'S, MN (1,210 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 Rice
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 58 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Rice: 49 thunderstorm wind reports, 7 heavy rain events, 1 flood and 1 lightning strike. They killed 0 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $433,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 81 mph, on August 13, 2010.
August 13, 2010: thunderstorm wind 3 miles from the centre of Rice — 1 injured, $50,000 damage.
NWS: “Many hundreds, perhaps thousands of trees were uprooted, snapped or broken in an eight mile wide swath that extended from the western edge of the county, near Rice to Watab, to just north of Sartell, to north central Benton County, in Graham Township, centered near State Highway 25 and County Road 77.”
August 13, 2010: thunderstorm wind 8 miles from the centre of Rice — $250,000 damage.
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 Rice's ZIP code 56367 have filed 42 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1982, and were paid $168,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1997: 21 claims (50% of all) and $93,000, then Severe flooding in 2001 with 14. 83% 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, 80 have fewer than Rice.
| Event | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Flooding1997 | 21 | $93,000 |
| Severe flooding2001 | 14 | $70,000 |
Benton County, which includes Rice, has been named in 13 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1965, 10 of them major disasters (by incident: 6 floods, 3 severe storms, 2 biological emergencies, 1 drought). The latest major disaster declaration was Covid-19 Pandemic, on April 7, 2020. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Benton County a Relatively Low rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively Moderate for tornadoes, hail and strong wind; Relatively Low for inland flooding, lightning and heat waves. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $18.1 million a year, the 31st highest of 87 Minnesota counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $10.3 million (57%), 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 Rice
- Royalton, MN8 mi
- Sartell, MN9 mi
- Sauk Rapids, MN10 mi
- Holdingford, MN13 mi
- Saint Joseph, MN13 mi
- Waite Park, MN14 mi
- Foley, MN14 mi
- Saint Cloud, MN14 mi
- Avon, MN15 mi
- Pierz, MN18 mi
- Little Falls, MN19 mi
- Albany, MN21 mi
All Minnesota cities →All hurricanes since 1851 →Compare Rice with another place →