Balfour, North Dakota
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1929 and the latest in 1979. It stands in Balfour Township. It lies in ZIP code area 58712. The Survey maps it on the Balfour quadrangle. 20 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,614 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBalfour fell from 26 to 20 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 | 26 | |
| 2020 | 20 | -6 (-23%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 8 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.
- 1929 USGS Balfour quadrangle1:62500
- 1954 USGS McClusky quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Balfour quadrangle1:24000
- 1958 USGS Balfour quadrangle1:62500
- 1958 USGS McClusky quadrangle1:250000
- 1979 USGS Drake quadrangle1:100000
Storms near this place
32 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Balfour in 32 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 13 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 6 tornado, 3 funnel cloud. 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 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Balfour | $60,000 | The strong thunderstorm winds resulted in extensive tree damage and destroyed a pole barn. |
| July 2010 | Tornado (EF0) | Balfour | $30,000 | A brief tornado touchdown occurred at a farmstead near Balfour. The tornado destroyed an outbuilding and did no other damage. The damage was consistent with EF0 tornado damage from the Enhanced Fujita Scale. From that it was determined that the wind speeds were around 80 mph. |
| August 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Balfour | $30,000 | no account filed |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Balfour | $15,000 | The roof of a metal shop was damaged. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Balfour | $15,000 | The strong thunderstorm winds blew down several trees. |
| June 1996 | Lightning | Balfour | $10,000 | no account filed |
| September 2025 | Tornado (EFU) | Balfour | - | The tornado touched down in an open field west of Balfour and impacted no structures before it lifted northeast of Bergen. There was no damage to evaluate. By National Weather Service policy the tornado is rated EF-U (Unknown). |
| July 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Balfour | - | The public reported thunderstorm wind gusts of 60 mph. |
| July 2021 | Hail | Balfour | - | The hail combined with wind gusts to 65 mph to ruin a garden. |
| July 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Balfour | - | The public reported thunderstorm wind gusts to 65 mph. |
| July 2021 | Hail | Balfour | - | Drifts of hail were noted as the hail was combined with 60 mph wind gusts. The garden was flattened. |
| July 2011 | Hail | Balfour | - | There were no reports of damage associated with the large hail. Strong winds accompanied the large hail. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Balfour | - | Large hail accompanied the strong winds. |
| July 2011 | Hail | Balfour | - | There were no reports of damage associated with the large hail. |
| August 2008 | Tornado (EF0) | Balfour | - | This tornado remained in open field and impacted no structures. No damage was reported. |
| May 1998 | Tornado (F0) | Balfour | - | Brief touch down reported by deputy. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Balfour | - | no account filed |
| September 2025 | Hail | Balfour | - | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Balfour | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Balfour | - | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Hail | Balfour | - | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Hail | Balfour | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Funnel Cloud | Balfour | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Tornado (F0) | Balfour | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Balfour | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Balfour | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Balfour | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Hail | Balfour | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Hail | Balfour | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Funnel Cloud | Balfour | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Funnel Cloud | Balfour | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Tornado (F0) | Balfour | - | 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.
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 Balfour | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2191610 | 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 1027800. 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.





