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West Union, Minnesota

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in West Union Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56389. The Survey maps it on the West Union quadrangle. 92 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,339 feet above sea level.

West Union within Todd County

On record in West Union

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

West Union fell from 111 to 92 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
2010111
202092-19 (-17%)

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.

Fires near this place

6 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of West Union between 1992 and 2018, burning about 341 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were 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
Arson/incendiarism2
Debris and open burning2
Recreation and ceremony1
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
6 April 2010Equipment and vehicle use10 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
4 April 1992Debris and open burning2.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
28 March 2005Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
18 November 2011Recreation and ceremony21 acresLitchfield Wetland Management DistrictGETTEL
18 October 2018Debris and open burning307 acresFergus Falls Wetland Management DistrictSCHULTZ LAKE WF
1 January 2000Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Todd County

Storms near this place

16 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names West Union in 16 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 11 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 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
August 2020Tornado (EF0)West Union$10,000A tornado damaged a garage that was rotated slightly, and its door was bowed out, and a few shingles were damaged. Other damage was associated with large tree limbs blown down along the tornado's path.
May 2013HailWest Union$200Ping Pong ball size hail broke the windshield of a truck.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindWest Union-A trained spotter reported a 20 inch diameter pine tree snapped, with a photo relayed via social media.
June 2023HailWest Union-A trained spotter reported that the hail had shredded some corn as seen in a photo that the spotter provided to NWS Twin Cities.
July 2019HailWest Union-This is the continuation of a swath of large hail that developed across Stevens County, and moved northeast across northwest Pope, southeast Douglas, and over the southern part of Todd County. There was a measured report of golf ball size hail north of West Union. This swath of large hail continued to north of Swanville.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindWest Union-A large tree was blown down north of West Union.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindWest Union-Large trees blown down on house causing damage. Several other trees also toppled.
September 2005HailWest Union-Golf ball sized hail was reported in the northeast corner of West Union Township. A vehicle and the roof of a house were damaged.
July 2003Thunderstorm WindWest Union-Few trees and power lines down.
August 2025HailWest Union-no account filed
May 2016HailWest Union-no account filed
June 2013HailWest Union-no account filed
July 2010HailWest Union-no account filed
June 2007HailWest Union-no account filed
June 2003HailWest Union-no account filed
June 1997HailWest Union-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Todd 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
Little Sauk9.8 miles8
Gutches Grove11.9 miles8
Spaulding12.3 miles8
Round Prairie12.7 miles8
Ward Springs14.8 miles8
Clotho15.3 miles9
Long Prairie16.6 miles9
Grey Eagle17.9 miles10

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 West UnionAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2227597The 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 654019. 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.