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Atwater, Minnesota

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Atwater City. It lies in ZIP code area 56209. The Survey maps it on the Atwater quadrangle. 1,124 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,220 feet above sea level.

Atwater within Kandiyohi County

On record in Atwater

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Atwater fell from 1,133 to 1,124 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
20101,133
20201,124-9 (-1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 10 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

1 since 2013

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Atwater in 2013, burning about 28 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
3 May 2013Debris and open burning28 acresLitchfield Wetland Management DistrictUNCLE MATT WF

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Kandiyohi County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Atwater: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Atwater Pit and MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Hall PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Kandiyohi County

Storms near this place

30 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Atwater in 30 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 12 hail, 11 thunderstorm wind, 6 tornado, 1 funnel cloud. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2018Tornado (EF0)Atwater$100,000A NWS storm survey indicated an EF0 Tornado began near Atwater and tracked east for 1.6 miles along Highway 12, and entered Meeker County. Multiple trees and power lines were blown down in the city of Atwater. Some of the trees landed on houses and caused structural damage.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindAtwater$15,000Decaying thunderstorm caused a large tree to fall on an unoccupied vehicle in the city of Atwater. The photo was relayed by the emergency manager, and time was estimated from radar.
June 2025Thunderstorm WindAtwater-Multiple downed trees on a property west of Lake Elizabeth.
August 2024Thunderstorm WindAtwater-Dozens of trees were uprooted or broken across Atwater. A damage survey determined the damage was due to a downburst, with a wide area of damaged trees scattered across the west and south sides of town. A few trees blocked roads or landed on houses, garages, and vehicles. Most trees were blown from the northeast to the southwest.
August 2024HailAtwater-Hail measurement provided via social media.
August 2024Thunderstorm WindAtwater-Several large trees down throughout and just south of Atwater.
August 2020Tornado (EF0)Atwater-An NWS Survey found an EF-0 tornado began over a peninsula of the northern portions of Diamond Lake. The tornado tracked northeast to the Kandiyohi/Meeker County line, near 340th Street and 210th Street Southeast, and did move into Meeker County.||Video from two storm chasers and one law enforcement officer showed this tornado. A damage survey also used two drones to determine the exact damage path. The tornado moved mostly over corn and bean fields, but did hit numerous trees that were snapped or uprooted when it was in Kandiyohi County.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindAtwater-Large branches were broken.
September 2014Thunderstorm WindAtwater-A large pear tree was uprooted.
September 2014Thunderstorm WindAtwater-A few trees were blown down near Diamond Lake.
July 2011Tornado (EF0)Atwater-There were several reports of a brief tornado from Skywarn Spotters and the public in a field along 310th Street, approximately 5 miles north-northeast of Atwater, Minnesota. An EF-0 tornado was confirmed the next day by a National Weather Service Service Team near the Kandiyohi/Meeker County line.||One detailed account indicated the condensation of the tornado reached the ground for about 20 seconds before the tornado dissipated. This occurred in a corn field.||Based on radar and information from the survey, winds were around 65 mph, with a path length near an 1/8 of a mile, and a width of 10 yards.
June 2008HailAtwater-Occurred at intersection of County Road 2 and 28.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindAtwater-A power line and tree branches were downed.
September 2005Thunderstorm WindAtwater-Trees were downed onto a home just west of Summit Lake on 1st Avenue E. Scattered trees were also downed in the northeast portion of the county.
September 2005Thunderstorm WindAtwater-Trees and power lines were downed.
September 2005Tornado (F0)Atwater-Brief touchdown near the intersection of County Roads 23 and 2. No damage.
June 2004HailAtwater-Dime to nickel sized hail fell near Big Kandi Lake.
June 2003Tornado (F0)Atwater-This was the sixth tornado on this day to touch down in Kandiyohi County, although the other five tornadoes were from a different supercell. This tornado tore across open fields then moved into Meeker County at 1916 CST. A few trees were felled.
May 2000Tornado (F0)Atwater-Power lines down.
May 2024HailAtwater-no account filed
August 2024HailAtwater-no account filed
May 2022HailAtwater-no account filed
May 2008HailAtwater-no account filed
September 2005HailAtwater-no account filed
September 2005Funnel CloudAtwater-no account filed
May 2002HailAtwater-no account filed
May 2002HailAtwater-no account filed
June 2001HailAtwater-no account filed
June 1999HailAtwater-no account filed
June 1996Thunderstorm WindAtwater-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Kandiyohi County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Kandiyohi8.1 miles10
Spicer10.8 miles10
Willmar14.1 miles10
New London14.2 miles8
Lake Lillian14.5 miles10
Hawick14.6 miles8
Svea15.9 miles10
Parkwood Estates16.3 miles10

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on AtwaterAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2346738The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 639501. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.