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.
Population over time
2 figuresDonnelly 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 241 | |
| 2020 | 221 | -20 (-8%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 9 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.
- 1910 USGS Chokio quadrangle1:62500
- 1912 USGS Chokio quadrangle1:62500
- 1953 USGS Milbank quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Milbank quadrangle1:250000
- 1973 USGS Donnelly quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Wheaton quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
5 since 2001Regional 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/undetermined | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 2013 | Debris and open burning | 126 acres | Morris National Wildlife Refuge | GEISE WILDFIRE |
| 6 April 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 acres | Morris National Wildlife Refuge | DONNELLY |
| 15 April 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Morris National Wildlife Refuge | GEISE WF2015 |
| 20 November 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.2 acres | Morris National Wildlife Refuge | BAHR WPA |
| 12 November 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Morris National Wildlife Refuge | FULTZ WPA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
44 since 1996Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2023 | Flood | Donnelly | $146,000 | A 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 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donnelly | $100,000 | A 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 2019 | Hail | Donnelly | $50,000 | The 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 2024 | Hail | Donnelly | - | Reported through mPing. |
| July 2024 | Hail | Donnelly | - | Reported via mPing. |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donnelly | - | A large spruce tree was blown down near Donnelly. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donnelly | - | Several large tree limbs, up to 12 inches in diameter, were blown down northwest of Donnelly. |
| May 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donnelly | - | An old garage was downed. A few shingles were removed from buildings and pallets were blown 50 feet in Donnelly. |
| May 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donnelly | - | A 10'x12' garage was blown one quarter mile by high winds. |
| May 2005 | Funnel Cloud | Donnelly | - | A funnel cloud was spotted by the fire department just south of Donnelly. |
| May 2005 | Tornado (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 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donnelly | - | 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 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donnelly | - | Four to 5 inch limbs were downed. |
| July 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donnelly | - | 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 2003 | Hail | Donnelly | - | 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 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donnelly | - | About 25 trees downed. |
| July 2025 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| August 2025 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| August 2025 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| June 2017 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| June 2016 | Funnel Cloud | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| August 2013 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| August 2013 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| August 2013 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| August 2013 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| August 2012 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| August 2012 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Funnel Cloud | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| July 2011 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| August 1999 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| April 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Funnel Cloud | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Hail | Donnelly | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Donnelly | - | 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.
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 Donnelly | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2231418 | 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 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.





