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Clarkfield, Minnesota

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Clarkfield City. It lies in ZIP code area 56223. The Survey maps it on the Clarkfield quadrangle. 852 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,089 feet above sea level.

Clarkfield within Yellow Medicine County

On record in Clarkfield

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

Clarkfield fell from 863 to 852 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
2010863
2020852-11 (-1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 9 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 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Clarkfield in 2015, burning about 9 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
25 April 2015Debris and open burning9.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Yellow Medicine County

Storms near this place

27 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Clarkfield in 27 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 15 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 1 lightning. 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
June 2002Tornado (F1)Clarkfield$50,000Tornado started in Lac Qui Parle County and ended in Yellow Medicine County. It destroyed one third of a turkey barn south of Clarkfield.
August 2025Thunderstorm WindClarkfield-Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 58 mph snapped a large tree off a weeping willow east of Clarkfield.
June 2024HailClarkfield-The hail stone was photographed by a trained spotter.
May 2022HailClarkfield-There was a social media picture of 3 inch hail.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindClarkfield-Several trees were blown down between Clarkfield to Hazel Run. Crop damage was also noted throughout the county.
June 2007HailClarkfield-Hail occurred along Highway 67.
July 2006Heavy RainClarkfield-Four and one tenth inches of rain fell at a farm in Stony Run township.
May 2004Thunderstorm WindClarkfield-A small shed was destroyed.
June 2002Thunderstorm WindClarkfield-Few trees down. Mobile construction office tipped over.
August 2002Thunderstorm WindClarkfield-Power pole snapped in half.
June 2001Tornado (F0)Clarkfield-Tornado touched down in open field. No damage reported.
May 2000HailClarkfield-Home windows broken, water left standing in fields.
May 2000Thunderstorm WindClarkfield-Estimated winds. Damage survey indicated damage to numerous barns, sheds, power lines, and trees. Downburst swath was approximately 5 miles wide and 7 miles long.
May 2000HailClarkfield-Wind driven hail produced major damage to numerous houses and other property.
June 1998HailClarkfield-Hailed for 10 minutes.
July 1997LightningClarkfield-Barn struck by lightning.
October 1997Thunderstorm WindClarkfield-Trees blown down. Estimated windspeed.
May 2022HailClarkfield-no account filed
July 2017HailClarkfield-no account filed
July 2017HailClarkfield-no account filed
July 2006HailClarkfield-no account filed
June 2005HailClarkfield-no account filed
May 2004HailClarkfield-no account filed
June 2002HailClarkfield-no account filed
May 2000HailClarkfield-no account filed
September 1998HailClarkfield-no account filed
July 1998Thunderstorm WindClarkfield-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Yellow Medicine 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
Spring Creek5.4 miles9
Hazel Run5.6 miles9
Normania9.9 miles9
Hanley Falls12.0 miles10
Lorne12.8 miles10
Saint Leo13.9 miles8
Valley Courts13.9 miles9
Granite Falls14.0 miles9

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 ClarkfieldAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2207409The 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 641251. 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.

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.