Watkins, Minnesota

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Forest Prairie Township. It lies in ZIP code area 55389. The Survey maps it on the Watkins quadrangle. 991 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,158 feet above sea level.

Watkins within Meeker County

Population over time

2 figures

Watkins grew from 962 to 991 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	962
2020	991	+29 (+3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 8 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.

1953 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1957 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
1967 USGS Watkins quadrangle1:24000
1986 USGS Litchfield quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

Storms near this place

19 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Watkins in 19 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 12 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 funnel cloud, 1 tornado. 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
July 2016	Tornado (EF2)	Watkins	1 hurt	The tornado near Watkins was also rated an EF-2 with peak winds of 125 mph. It had a maximum width of 400 yards and traveled approximately 2.1 miles. One injury occurred with this tornado. The first significant damage was to a business along Highway 55 on the south side of town. The tornado then tracked across the highway and passed through the St. Anthony Cemetery before passing through the center of Watkins doing damage to structures and many trees. The most significant damage occurred between Stearns Ave and Meeker Ave where several homes had significant roof damage, and had detached sheds, and garages destroyed. The tornado exited the town and did further tree damage as the tornado moved northeast into Stearns County.
July 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Watkins	-	Many trees damaged and stripped of leaves.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Watkins	-	A few large trees were blown down.
March 2005	Hail	Watkins	-	Enough hail to shovel.
June 2005	Hail	Watkins	-	Hail began to fall at the size of walnuts and gradually decreased to the size of dimes 25 minutes later.
June 2005	Hail	Watkins	-	Penny sized hail fell at Clear Lake.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Watkins	-	A fish house was blown over and rolled 50 feet.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Watkins	-	Trees were downed and a pop-up trailer was opened and rolled in town. A shed 2 miles southwest of town was damaged.
June 2004	Hail	Watkins	-	Nickel sized hail fell near Clear Lake.
June 2025	Funnel Cloud	Watkins	-	no account filed
August 2020	Funnel Cloud	Watkins	-	no account filed
August 2013	Hail	Watkins	-	no account filed
April 2004	Hail	Watkins	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Watkins	-	no account filed
June 2004	Hail	Watkins	-	no account filed
May 2002	Hail	Watkins	-	no account filed
June 2002	Hail	Watkins	-	no account filed
May 2002	Hail	Watkins	-	no account filed
June 1998	Hail	Watkins	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Meeker 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
Eden Valley	7.3 miles	8
Forest City	8.1 miles	10
Kingston	9.6 miles	10
Manannah	11.9 miles	8
Litchfield	14.4 miles	10
Darwin	15.1 miles	10
West View Terrace	16.9 miles	10
Dassel	17.0 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 Watkins	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2206933	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 653838. 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.