Clear Lake, Minnesota
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Clear Lake City. It lies in ZIP code area 55319. The Survey maps it on the Clear Lake quadrangle. 641 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 994 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresClear Lake grew from 545 to 641 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 545 | |
| 2020 | 641 | +96 (+18%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 16 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1953 USGS Stillwater quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Stillwater quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Stillwater quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Clear Lake quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Monticello quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1965 USGS Stillwater quadrangle1:250000
- 1975 USGS Stillwater quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Anoka quadrangle1:100000
- 1991 USGS Anoka quadrangle1:100000
- 1991 USGS Clear Lake quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
100 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 100 fires within 5 miles of Clear Lake between 1992 and 2020, burning about 329 acres in total. None started naturally. 8 were 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 burning | 45 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 19 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 16 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 8 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 September 1993 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 6 August 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 August 2003 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 27 August 2003 | Smoking | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 24 August 2000 | Debris and open burning | 1.5 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 13 August 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 1.5 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 July 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 11 July 2005 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
41 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Clear Lake in 41 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 18 thunderstorm wind, 18 hail, 3 tornado, 2 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | $10,000 | Numerous trees down, boats and docks flipped along Briggs Lake. Some trees came down on homes and vehicles. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | $5,000 | Several trees were uprooted in Clear Lake, Minnesota. |
| April 2025 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | Photo measurement provided via social media. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | Snapped trees deposited debris on County Rd 16 off Hwy 10. |
| May 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | A trained spotter measured a wind gust of 63 knots between Clear Lake, and Clearwater on County Road 8. |
| June 2010 | Tornado (EF0) | Clear Lake | - | Brief touchdown in field. Storm chaser recorded video of this tornado. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | Several large trees were uprooted northeast of Clearwater, Minnesota. |
| June 2010 | Tornado (EF0) | Clear Lake | - | A few dozen trees were broken or snapped. Storm chaser recorded video of this tornado. |
| August 2010 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | Several reports of nickel, up to quarter size hail fell around the Clear Lake area of Minnesota. |
| June 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | Several 12 to 15 inch diameter trees toppled. |
| June 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | Six inch diameter trees down. |
| July 2005 | Funnel Cloud | Clear Lake | - | A citizen reported a funnel cloud between Clear Lake and Becker. The time was estimated. |
| June 2005 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | Small branches and many leaves were downed by the hail that fell 1 mile north of the St. Cloud Regional Airport. |
| July 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | A trained spotter reported a wind gust of 60 MPH. |
| August 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | Branches up to 4 inches in diameter were downed and an aluminum flag pole was bent over in Section 29 of Clear Lake East Township. |
| April 2004 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | The hail covered the ground. |
| May 2004 | Tornado (F0) | Clear Lake | - | A weak tornado was reported by trained spotters just north of the intersection of Highway 10 and County Road 6. It dissipated northeast of town a short time later with little if any damage reported. |
| July 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | A shed was blown 150 feet away from its foundation. |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | Four inch diameter branches down. |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | Sheet of plywood was lifted up and blown into a transformer. |
| August 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | Flag pole bent over. Several trees toppled. |
| August 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | Large trees blown down onto highway 24. Estimated windspeed. |
| August 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | Large trees blown down. Estimated windspeed. |
| June 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | Several large trees were blown down. |
| July 2023 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2019 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2019 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2019 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| August 2010 | Funnel Cloud | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| April 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Briggs Lake | 5.5 miles | 10 | |
| Cable | 6.1 miles | 12 | |
| Becker | 7.4 miles | 16 | |
| Pine Ridge Court | 7.6 miles | 14 | |
| Salida | 11.3 miles | 16 | |
| Santiago | 11.5 miles | 10 | |
| Orrock | 13.9 miles | 14 | |
| Big Lake | 15.5 miles | 13 |
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 Clear Lake | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q567738 | The 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 641296. 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.









