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Donnelly, Minnesota

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1910 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Donnelly City. It lies in ZIP code area 56235. The Survey maps it on the Donnelly quadrangle. 221 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,129 feet above sea level.

Donnelly within Stevens County

Population over time

2 figures

Donnelly fell from 241 to 221 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
2010241
2020221-20 (-8%)

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

5 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Donnelly between 2001 and 2015, burning about 230 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Equipment and vehicle use1
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
11 May 2013Debris and open burning126 acresMorris National Wildlife RefugeGEISE WILDFIRE
6 April 2004Missing data/not specified/undetermined100 acresMorris National Wildlife RefugeDONNELLY
15 April 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMorris National Wildlife RefugeGEISE WF2015
20 November 2002Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.2 acresMorris National Wildlife RefugeBAHR WPA
12 November 2001Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresMorris National Wildlife RefugeFULTZ WPA

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Stevens County

Storms near this place

44 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Donnelly in 44 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 26 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 4 funnel cloud, 1 tornado. 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
April 2023FloodDonnelly$146,000A combination of record setting seasonal snowfall, high snow water equivalent values, and rapid snow melt led to low lying areas, ditches, and ravines across the county to flood for a prolonged period of time. Road infrastructure such as bridges, gravel roads, and culverts experience varied degrees of damage caused by rapid runoff. Stevens County Emergency Management reported $145,700 in damages to roads and bridges.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindDonnelly$100,000A storm survey that was conducted by the local emergency manager, and storm chasers, concluded that a downburst caused wind damage from 4 miles southwest of Donnelly, to 2 miles northeast of Donnelly. The damage field was 1/2 mile wide and all the damage was to the east/northeast. All the damage outside of Donnelly was scattered trees blown down and some crop damage. There were multiple buildings in the town of Donnelly that had damage. Some siding and many shingles were blown off downtown structures. Some trees fell onto houses and buildings. Two metal buildings had their tin roofs partially removed and one had a steel garage door blown in.
July 2019HailDonnelly$50,000The swath of large hail continued through the rest of Stevens County to the Douglas County line. The largest hail stone measured was golf ball size.
July 2024HailDonnelly-Reported through mPing.
July 2024HailDonnelly-Reported via mPing.
May 2022Thunderstorm WindDonnelly-A large spruce tree was blown down near Donnelly.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindDonnelly-Several large tree limbs, up to 12 inches in diameter, were blown down northwest of Donnelly.
May 2005Thunderstorm WindDonnelly-An old garage was downed. A few shingles were removed from buildings and pallets were blown 50 feet in Donnelly.
May 2005Thunderstorm WindDonnelly-A 10'x12' garage was blown one quarter mile by high winds.
May 2005Funnel CloudDonnelly-A funnel cloud was spotted by the fire department just south of Donnelly.
May 2005Tornado (F0)Donnelly-A farmer saw a "block wide" tornado briefly touch down and pick up dirt in an open field in Pepperton Township, Section 14.
July 2005Thunderstorm WindDonnelly-Downburst winds measured as high as 85 MPH (2 miles northwest of Swan Lake at 8:33 AM EDT) caused considerable damage in a 2 mile wide swath stretching from Highway 59 to the Pope County line in northeast Stevens County. The high wind damage path that started at Highway 59 was found between the following locations: 1 mile south of the Grant/Stevens county line and the County Road 20 intersection. The path continued in an east-southeast direction toward the Pope County border and crossed the county line between the following locations: 1 mile north of County Road 20 and 150th Street. A survey of the path revealed the following damage: 5 power poles were downed on the east side of Highway 59 along with significant tree damage nearby; significant tree and corn damage along County Road 20 from Highway 59 to the Pope County line. See the Pope County entry for damage reports east of the county line.
July 2005Thunderstorm WindDonnelly-Four to 5 inch limbs were downed.
July 2005Thunderstorm WindDonnelly-Trees were downed across town. A machine shed was destroyed, but the shed door was open at the time which helped make the damage more severe.
June 2003HailDonnelly-Hail storms pummeled bean, corn and wheat fields of about 60 farmers in Stevens County June 21-24. Damage amount compiled by Stevens County Emergency Management.
August 2002Thunderstorm WindDonnelly-About 25 trees downed.
July 2025HailDonnelly-no account filed
August 2025HailDonnelly-no account filed
August 2025HailDonnelly-no account filed
July 2024HailDonnelly-no account filed
May 2022HailDonnelly-no account filed
June 2017HailDonnelly-no account filed
June 2016Funnel CloudDonnelly-no account filed
August 2013HailDonnelly-no account filed
August 2013HailDonnelly-no account filed
August 2013HailDonnelly-no account filed
August 2013HailDonnelly-no account filed
August 2012HailDonnelly-no account filed
August 2012HailDonnelly-no account filed
May 2011HailDonnelly-no account filed
May 2011Funnel CloudDonnelly-no account filed
July 2011HailDonnelly-no account filed
June 2003HailDonnelly-no account filed
May 2002HailDonnelly-no account filed
August 2002HailDonnelly-no account filed
July 2002HailDonnelly-no account filed
June 2001HailDonnelly-no account filed
June 2001HailDonnelly-no account filed
August 1999HailDonnelly-no account filed
April 1998Thunderstorm WindDonnelly-no account filed
June 1997Funnel CloudDonnelly-no account filed
June 1996Thunderstorm WindDonnelly-no account filed
June 1996HailDonnelly-no account filed
May 1996Thunderstorm WindDonnelly-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Stevens 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
Alberta8.3 miles9
Morris8.9 miles12
Chokio11.8 miles9
Hancock17.6 miles8

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 DonnellyAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2231418The 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 642887. 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.