Alpha, Minnesota
6 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Wisconsin Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56111. The Survey maps it on the Alpha quadrangle. 97 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,381 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresAlpha fell from 116 to 97 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 | 116 | |
| 2020 | 97 | -19 (-16%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 6 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.
- 1954 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:250000
- 1970 USGS Alpha quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:100000
Storms near this place
17 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alpha in 17 storm reports between 1996 and 2022: 12 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alpha | $50,000 | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alpha | - | Several branches up to 2 inches in diameter were removed by strong thunderstorm wind gusts. |
| April 2019 | Hail | Alpha | - | Dime to nickel size hail. |
| June 2013 | Flash Flood | Alpha | - | Heavy rain from thunderstorms caused flash flooding of Judicial Creek, with farmland affected. |
| July 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alpha | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including up to 12 inch diameter limbs blown down. |
| August 2005 | Flash Flood | Alpha | - | Heavy rains caused Elm Creek to rise over its banks, flooding adjoining fields. |
| June 2002 | Hail | Alpha | - | Large hail caused light to moderate crop damage. The amount of damage could not be assessed yet. |
| August 2021 | Hail | Alpha | - | no account filed |
| April 2015 | Hail | Alpha | - | no account filed |
| April 2015 | Hail | Alpha | - | no account filed |
| May 2012 | Hail | Alpha | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Alpha | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Alpha | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Alpha | - | no account filed |
| April 2004 | Hail | Alpha | - | no account filed |
| April 2004 | Hail | Alpha | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Hail | Alpha | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jackson | 6.4 miles | 6 | |
| Petersburg | 7.9 miles | 6 | |
| Bergen | 12.3 miles | 6 | |
| Lakefield | 16.2 miles | 9 | |
| Wilder | 21.6 miles | 7 | |
| Rost | 22.5 miles | 8 | |
| Sioux Valley | 23.9 miles | 7 | |
| Okabena | 24.6 miles | 8 |
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 Alpha | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2333978 | 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 639305. 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.



