Donaldson, Minnesota
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1939 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Donaldson City. It lies in ZIP code area 56720. The Survey maps it on the Donaldson quadrangle. 20 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 827 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresDonaldson fell from 42 to 20 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 | 42 | |
| 2020 | 20 | -22 (-52%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 11 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.
- 1939 USGS Kennedy quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1941 USGS Kennedy quadrangle1:62500
- 1952 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1974 USGS Donaldson quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Hallock quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
3 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Donaldson between 1995 and 2018, burning about 190 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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 burning | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 May 1995 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 160 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 13 April 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 10 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
34 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Donaldson in 34 storm reports between 2001 and 2024: 21 thunderstorm wind, 10 hail, 2 tornado, 1 flash flood. 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 2006 | Tornado (F1) | Donaldson | $40,000 | The tornado touched down in a field just north of highway 11 and travelled for about 3.5 miles before it crossed into Marshall county. Tornadic winds snapped several cottonwood trees at a homestead and swirled tree branches around the yard. Smaller tree branches were lofted over a mile to the south by the tornado and crops were swirled by the winds. Peak winds were estimated at 80 mph. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | MN HWY 7 Mile post 11 RWIS...Also reports of trees snapped near the sensor location. Corrected to report the measured gust of 78mph not 68mph. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | The wind gust was measured by a MNDOT RWIS mesonet sensor. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | The wind gust was measured by a NDAWN mesonet sensor. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | The wind gust was measured by a NDAWN mesonet sensor. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | The wind gust was measured by a RWIS mesonet sensor. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | A 15,000 bushel steel grain bin was caved in and popped off its foundation, with its roof torn off and thrown downwind over a hundred yards. |
| August 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | The wind gust was measured by a Minnesota DOT RWIS sensor. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | The wind gust was measured by a MNDOT mesonet sensor. |
| August 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | The winds were measured by a MNDOT RWIS site along highway 11. |
| July 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | Power lines were blown down knocking out the MNDOT RWIS sensors on highway 11. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | A few trees were snapped in a shelterbelt south of highway 11. |
| September 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | Peak westerly winds to 121 mph were measured at the RWIS site located along highway 11. Damage to downwind fields, farm shelterbelts and the community of Donaldson were commensurate with winds to that extreme. |
| September 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | Two large commercial grade steel bins and their horizontal transfer system were torn out from the city grain elevator facility and were splayed to the east, partially blocking U. S. Highway 75. Several wooden power poles in the area were also snapped. Numerous large trees and tree limbs were torn down around the community and most homes sustained shingle, roofing and siding damage. |
| September 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | Three farm grade steel grain bins were torn off their foundations and blown out into a field. Three more steel bins at the farm yard were severely dented in and partially removed from their foundations. Numerous shingles were torn off of a home and all west facing windows on the home were cracked. A nearby metal highway signpost was snapped. Peak winds were estimated at 110 mph. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | The wind gust was measured by a MNDOT RWIS sensor. |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | The MNDOT RWIS site at Donaldson measured the wind gust. |
| July 2006 | Hail | Donaldson | - | Several square miles of crops were shattered or flattened by large hail in eastern Davis and western Springbrook townships. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | A MNDOT RWIS sensor measured the 60 mph wind gust. |
| May 2004 | Tornado (F0) | Donaldson | - | A brief touchdown was reported. |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | A MN DOT RWIS site reported a 61 mph wind gust. |
| May 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | A 73 mph wind gust was measured by a MN DOT RWIS site. |
| August 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | Trees were blown down. |
| July 2001 | Flash Flood | Donaldson | - | Four inches of rain in 45 minutes caused water to overflow a dike into a field. |
| July 2017 | Hail | Donaldson | - | no account filed |
| June 2015 | Hail | Donaldson | - | no account filed |
| July 2011 | Hail | Donaldson | - | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Hail | Donaldson | - | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Hail | Donaldson | - | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Hail | Donaldson | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donaldson | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Donaldson | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Donaldson | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Hail | Donaldson | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kennedy | 4.9 miles | 11 | |
| Enok | 9.2 miles | 11 | |
| Chatham (historical) | 10.0 miles | 11 | |
| Mattson | 12.4 miles | 12 | |
| Robbin | 13.0 miles | 13 | |
| Viking Land Terrace | 13.9 miles | 11 | |
| Hallock | 14.2 miles | 11 | |
| Deerwood | 16.2 miles | 10 |
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 Donaldson | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2230953 | 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 642883. 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.







