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Winger, Minnesota

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Winger Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56592. The Survey maps it on the Winger quadrangle. 174 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,234 feet above sea level.

Winger within Polk County

Population over time

2 figures

Winger fell from 220 to 174 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
2010220
2020174-46 (-21%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 9 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

7 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Winger between 1995 and 2020, burning about 585 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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
Debris and open burning4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2
Arson/incendiarism1

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
5 May 2016Debris and open burning22 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
20 May 1995Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota AgencyLEECH
2 May 2016Arson/incendiarism250 acresDetroit Lakes Wetland Management DistrictVESLEDAHL
18 May 2014Debris and open burning155 acresDetroit Lakes Wetland Management DistrictNELSON PRAIRIE WEST
10 May 2004Debris and open burning8.0 acresDetroit Lakes Wetland Management DistrictMALTROD 04
11 April 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresDetroit Lakes Wetland Management DistrictMNDLR-WF-FY20-VESLEDAHL
18 October 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined145 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Polk County

Storms near this place

23 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Winger in 23 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 13 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 4 tornado, 1 flash flood. 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
June 2018Tornado (EF2)Winger$6,500,000This tornado was likely wrapped in downburst winds and heavy rain for most of its path. It tracked nearly due east at about 60 mph, for at least 15 miles. It tore down trees in shelterbelts and tore roofing off of a couple of homes and farm buildings. It tore down 11 miles, or more than 50 high voltage towers, and snapped wooden power poles at cross roads along its path. Peak winds were estimated at 120 mph.
July 2002Tornado (F1)Winger$20,000A metal shed roof was damaged and a steel bin roof was torn off 2 miles north of Winger. The path was intermittent.
July 1999Thunderstorm WindWinger$1,000Power lines were blown down.
May 1998Thunderstorm WindWinger$1,000A tree blew down in the wind, stripping a power meter from a wall.
May 1998Thunderstorm WindWinger$1,000The wind blew down a tree and tore the skirt from a trailer home.
November 2000HailWinger$200The hailstones broke a window.
July 2024HailWinger-Public reports quarter sized hail 3 miles east of Winger.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindWinger-An apple tree was snapped with other large branches downed.
August 2018Thunderstorm WindWinger-Trees were blown down onto highway 59.
June 2010Tornado (EF0)Winger-This tornado began in Mahnomen County about 3 miles east of Bejou at 400 PM CDT. It crossed into Polk County and tracked for another 2 miles, giving a total track length of about 6 miles. The tornado knocked down several trees in farm shelterbelts. Peak winds were estimated at 80 mph.
July 2006HailWinger-Hail, ranging in size from a quarter to a hen egg, covered the road.
August 2002HailWinger-The hail was one inch deep on the ground.
June 1998Flash FloodWinger-Water was reported to be over route 204.
May 2010HailWinger-no account filed
July 2006HailWinger-no account filed
July 2006HailWinger-no account filed
May 2002HailWinger-no account filed
July 2002HailWinger-no account filed
May 2001HailWinger-no account filed
May 2001HailWinger-no account filed
November 2000HailWinger-no account filed
July 1998HailWinger-no account filed
July 1998Tornado (F0)Winger-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Polk 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
McIntosh8.8 miles11
Erskine9.1 miles9
Fosston12.9 miles10
West View Court12.9 miles10
Mentor13.8 miles9
Maple Bay14.3 miles9
Fertile15.5 miles8
Dugdale18.6 miles8

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 WingerAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2227148The 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 654260. 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.