Lake Elmo, Minnesota
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1946 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Lake Elmo City. It lies in ZIP code area 55042. The Survey maps it on the Lake Elmo quadrangle. 11,335 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 912 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresLake Elmo grew from 8,069 to 11,335 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 | 8,069 | |
| 2020 | 11,335 | +3,266 (+40%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 17 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.
- 1946 USGS Hudson quadrangle1:62500
- 1949 USGS Hudson quadrangle1:62500
- 1949 USGS Lake Elmo quadrangle1:24000
- 1950 USGS Lake Elmo quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS Saint Paul quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1953 USGS St. Paul quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Saint Paul quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS St. Paul quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Lake Elmo quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1985 USGS Hastings quadrangle1:100000
- 1990 USGS Hastings quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
2 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Lake Elmo between 2000 and 2020, burning about 20 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 |
|---|---|
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 April 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 17 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 13 October 2000 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
8 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Lake Elmo: 7 producers, 1 past producer. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Silica, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barton 769 Quarry & Mill | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Twincities Silica Pit & Mill | Silica | Past Producer | ||
| Barton Pit No 713 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Barton Pit No 766 and Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Hudson Pit No 714 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Pete Miller Pit No 2 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Pete Miller Pit and Mill No 1 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Pete Miller's Highway 94 Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
20 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lake Elmo in 20 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 11 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 funnel cloud. The reports record 1 injury. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2021 | Lightning | Lake Elmo | 1 hurt | Lightning struck a moviegoer at an east metro drive-in theater as storms moved through the area. The man was struck about 10:25 p.m CDT, Thursday, August, 5th at the Vali-Hi Drive-In just north of Interstate 94 in Lake Elmo. |
| August 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake Elmo | $1,500,000 | Wind measured at Lake Elmo Airport. Thirtytwo aircraft damaged, structural damage to several hangars at the Lake Elmo Airport. Estimated damage of one million dollars at the airport, according to the Metropolitan Airports Commission. Forty homes damaged just west of the airport with another 0.5 million damage estimated. Most damage involved dislodged shingles, siding, garage doors damaged. Many large trees in the old village area of Lake Elmo suffered heavy damage, or were blown down. Some corn also flattened. Twenty thousand electrical customers out of power for several hours across Woodbury, Afton, and Lake Elmo. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake Elmo | - | Three-to-four-inch branches broken off of healthy trees. |
| August 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake Elmo | - | Time estimated from radar. Delayed report of multiple medium-sized trees snapped and some uprooted. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake Elmo | - | Eleven power poles were snapped along Manning Avenue (County Road 15) south of County Road 10 near Oak-Land Junior High School. |
| June 2005 | Funnel Cloud | Lake Elmo | - | Several spotters reported a funnel cloud near Interstate 94 and Keats Avenue. |
| July 2000 | Tornado (F1) | Lake Elmo | - | Tornado occurred near County Rd. 17 and County Rd. 10. Numerous trees down and a few mobile homes were damaged before tornado moved into an open field. This tornado was produced by a mesocyclone that began producing downburst damage in Lino Lakes and continued moving southeast into Wisconsin (Pierce County). |
| July 2000 | Hail | Lake Elmo | - | Damaged crops include corn, soybean, and various garden vegetables along a two mile path through Lake Elmo, according to the Courier News. |
| August 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake Elmo | - | Estimated Winds. Trees down. |
| April 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake Elmo | - | Strong thunderstorm winds blew down several trees and damaged a home in Maplewood. Several trees were blown down in the Lake Elmo area. A tornado touched down west of Stillwater and caused an estimated $3 million damage to 17 homes. Ten of the homes were severely damaged and a 3-year-boy was injured by flying debris. |
| May 2022 | Hail | Lake Elmo | - | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Hail | Lake Elmo | - | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Hail | Lake Elmo | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Lake Elmo | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Lake Elmo | - | no account filed |
| August 2010 | Hail | Lake Elmo | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Hail | Lake Elmo | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Lake Elmo | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Lake Elmo | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Hail | Lake Elmo | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Siegel | 4.1 miles | 22 | |
| Oakbury | 4.3 miles | 17 | |
| Pine Springs | 4.8 miles | 21 | |
| Oakdale | 5.1 miles | 17 | |
| Oak Park Heights | 5.2 miles | 22 | |
| Bayport | 5.5 miles | 22 | |
| Duluth Junction | 5.7 miles | 21 | |
| Stillwater | 5.7 miles | 22 |
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 Elmo | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1927010 | 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 646344. 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.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, 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.










