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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.

Clear Lake within Sherburne County

Population over time

2 figures

Clear 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.

YearPeople Change
2010545
2020641+96 (+18%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 16 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

100 since 1992

Regional 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 burning45
Railroad operations and maintenance19
Equipment and vehicle use16
Arson/incendiarism8
Missing data/not specified/undetermined7
Smoking2
Recreation and ceremony2
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
24 September 1993Equipment and vehicle use3.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
6 August 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
30 August 2003Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
27 August 2003Smokingunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
24 August 2000Debris and open burning1.5 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
13 August 1996Railroad operations and maintenance1.5 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
5 July 1996Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
11 July 2005Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Sherburne County

Storms near this place

41 since 1994

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2001Thunderstorm WindClear Lake$10,000Numerous trees down, boats and docks flipped along Briggs Lake. Some trees came down on homes and vehicles.
July 2010Thunderstorm WindClear Lake$5,000Several trees were uprooted in Clear Lake, Minnesota.
April 2025HailClear Lake-Photo measurement provided via social media.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindClear Lake-Snapped trees deposited debris on County Rd 16 off Hwy 10.
May 2012Thunderstorm WindClear Lake-A trained spotter measured a wind gust of 63 knots between Clear Lake, and Clearwater on County Road 8.
June 2010Tornado (EF0)Clear Lake-Brief touchdown in field. Storm chaser recorded video of this tornado.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindClear Lake-Several large trees were uprooted northeast of Clearwater, Minnesota.
June 2010Tornado (EF0)Clear Lake-A few dozen trees were broken or snapped. Storm chaser recorded video of this tornado.
August 2010HailClear Lake-Several reports of nickel, up to quarter size hail fell around the Clear Lake area of Minnesota.
June 2006Thunderstorm WindClear Lake-Several 12 to 15 inch diameter trees toppled.
June 2006Thunderstorm WindClear Lake-Six inch diameter trees down.
July 2005Funnel CloudClear Lake-A citizen reported a funnel cloud between Clear Lake and Becker. The time was estimated.
June 2005HailClear Lake-Small branches and many leaves were downed by the hail that fell 1 mile north of the St. Cloud Regional Airport.
July 2005Thunderstorm WindClear Lake-A trained spotter reported a wind gust of 60 MPH.
August 2005Thunderstorm WindClear 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 2004HailClear Lake-The hail covered the ground.
May 2004Tornado (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 2004Thunderstorm WindClear Lake-A shed was blown 150 feet away from its foundation.
July 2003Thunderstorm WindClear Lake-Four inch diameter branches down.
July 2003Thunderstorm WindClear Lake-Sheet of plywood was lifted up and blown into a transformer.
August 2002Thunderstorm WindClear Lake-Flag pole bent over. Several trees toppled.
August 1997Thunderstorm WindClear Lake-Large trees blown down onto highway 24. Estimated windspeed.
August 1997Thunderstorm WindClear Lake-Large trees blown down. Estimated windspeed.
June 1994Thunderstorm WindClear Lake-Several large trees were blown down.
July 2023HailClear Lake-no account filed
July 2019HailClear Lake-no account filed
July 2019HailClear Lake-no account filed
July 2019HailClear Lake-no account filed
May 2011HailClear Lake-no account filed
May 2011HailClear Lake-no account filed
June 2010HailClear Lake-no account filed
August 2010Funnel CloudClear Lake-no account filed
May 2006HailClear Lake-no account filed
August 2006HailClear Lake-no account filed
August 2005HailClear Lake-no account filed
April 2004Thunderstorm WindClear Lake-no account filed
July 2003HailClear Lake-no account filed
July 2003HailClear Lake-no account filed
August 2001HailClear Lake-no account filed
May 2000HailClear Lake-no account filed
May 1996Thunderstorm WindClear Lake-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Sherburne 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
Briggs Lake5.5 miles10
Cable6.1 miles12
Becker7.4 miles16
Pine Ridge Court7.6 miles14
Salida11.3 miles16
Santiago11.5 miles10
Orrock13.9 miles14
Big Lake15.5 miles13

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 LakeAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q567738The 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.