Lake Crystal, Minnesota

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1951 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Lake Crystal City. It lies in ZIP code area 56055. The Survey maps it on the Lake Crystal quadrangle. 2,539 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 994 feet above sea level.

Lake Crystal within Blue Earth County

On record in Lake Crystal

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 3 records

Population over time

2 figures

Lake Crystal fell from 2,549 to 2,539 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	2,549
2020	2,539	-10 (-0%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 12 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.

1951 USGS Mankato West quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
1953 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1957 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:250000
1967 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:250000
1974 USGS Lake Crystal quadrangle1:24000
1986 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:100000
1991 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:100000

Storms near this place

52 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lake Crystal in 52 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 24 hail, 17 thunderstorm wind, 5 tornado, 3 heavy rain. 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 2003	Tornado (F2)	Lake Crystal	$100,000	The second tornado from a cyclic tornadic supercell touched down on the western edge of a farmstead. It snapped a dozen trees and demolished a barn and sheds. The roof of a house was peeled away and four vehicles were moved.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	$2,500	A large tree was blown down and caused damage to a trailers roof.
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	$2,000	Several 10 inch branches down. One branch fell on truck causing moderate damage.
June 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	$250	Several large tree limbs were blown down, with some damage to bleachers at the city park.
August 2025	Heavy Rain	Lake Crystal	-	Cocorahs station MN-BU-85 Lake Crystal 0.2 NW. 72 hour storm total of 5.19 inches.
June 2020	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	A social media picture of quarter size hail was noted.
June 2020	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	There was a large swath of very large hail, up to 2.5 inches in diameter, that fell from Lake Crystal, southeast toward Garden City, Rapidan, and Good Thunder. There was also vegetation damage that was associated with the hail.
May 2018	Funnel Cloud	Lake Crystal	-	A funnel cloud was photographed near Lake Crystal and relayed by KEYC-TV. The funnel appeared to have been about 1/3 to 1/2 to the ground, but it was not possible to determine whether it ever touched down, and there were no reports of it ever reaching the ground.
June 2016	Flash Flood	Lake Crystal	-	Several sources indicated that torrential rainfall caused roads to flood across parts of northern Blue Earth County during the afternoon of Tuesday, June 14th. Road closures included 1 between Skyline and County Road 90 along the Blue Earth River. There was also major flooding in the city of Mankato which had mudslides along the Minnesota River.
June 2016	Heavy Rain	Lake Crystal	-	A 4 hour rainfall report of 6.50 inches occurred one mile south of Lake Crystal.
June 2016	Heavy Rain	Lake Crystal	-	A 4 hour rainfall report of 5.50 inches occurred 3 miles south of Lake Crystal.
August 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	-	Large tree branches were blown down in Lake Crystal along some power outages.
September 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	-	Power lines were blown down in Lake Crystal.
May 2014	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	Most of the hail was the size of nickels.
June 2010	Tornado (EF1)	Lake Crystal	-	The tornado produced widespread damage to campers, roofs, docks, and sheds. Numerous trees were broken or uprooted.
June 2007	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	Crops were also reported damaged in the area according to the Mankato Free Press.
June 2005	Tornado (F0)	Lake Crystal	-	A storm chaser witnessed a tornado briefly touch down near Minneopa State Park. Two other storm chasers also confirmed the touchdown from different vantage points.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	-	An empty 15,000 bushel grain bin was blown into a barn a few miles south of Lake Crystal. In addition the roof of a hog barn was ripped off and power lines were downed nearby.
June 2005	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	Pea to dime sized hail fell south and east of Lake Crystal. Crop damage was reported.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	-	Law enforcement officials reported that a semi tractor trailer was blown over on Highway 60 between Mankato and Lake Crystal.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	-	A number of trees were downed, including one which fell onto a city dock at the swimming beach. The time was estimated.
April 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	-	A 58 MPH wind gust was recorded by a MNDOT weather sensor.
May 2004	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	Quarter sized hail whitened the ground and removed leaves from the trees.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	-	Several trees blown down, including one across a road.
July 2003	Tornado (F0)	Lake Crystal	-	Brief touchdown in a bean field.
July 2003	Tornado (F0)	Lake Crystal	-	Brief touchdown on the extreme eastern edge of town, near the intersection of Kraus Street and Blue Earth Street. Several trees were damaged. The storm which produced this tornado also produced widespread strong wind damage throughout central and western sections of Lake Crystal (see corresponding entry).
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	-	Based on the NWS damage survey, the vast majority of damage in Lake Crystal this day was due to strong thunderstorm winds, rather than the brief tornado that also touched down (see corresponding entry). Dozens of trees were toppled, some snapped. Many trees fell on sheds, homes and vehicles.
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	-	Light to moderate damage of approximately 15,000 acres of field corn, but severe damage to 2,000 acres of sweet corn. Scattered trees down, including one on an automobile causing considerable damage. Minor building damage.
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	-	Trees felled. Estimated Windspeed.
July 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	-	Trees blown down. Estimated windspeed.
August 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	-	Tree blown down.
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	-	Large tree limb brought down by strong wind.
April 2026	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
April 2026	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
April 2026	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
April 2026	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
July 2017	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
May 2016	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
May 2012	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
June 2007	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
June 2007	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
June 2007	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
June 2007	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
September 2006	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
June 2005	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
May 2003	Funnel Cloud	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
May 2000	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
June 1997	Hail	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed
October 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Lake Crystal	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Blue Earth 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Rambush Estates II	0.5 miles	12
Garden City	5.0 miles	12
Butternut	6.2 miles	9
Judson	6.4 miles	12
Perth	7.6 miles	9
Rapidan	8.0 miles	12
LeHillier	10.2 miles	13
Vernon Center	10.3 miles	6

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 Lake Crystal	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1013087	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 646340. 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.

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.