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Cosmos, Minnesota

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Cosmos Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56228. The Survey maps it on the Cosmos quadrangle. 507 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,112 feet above sea level.

Cosmos within Meeker County

Population over time

2 figures

Cosmos grew from 473 to 507 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
2010473
2020507+34 (+7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 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

1 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Cosmos in 2015, burning about 40 acres in total. None started naturally. None 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1

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
18 April 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined40 acresLitchfield Wetland Management DistrictBROOKFIELD WF

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Meeker County

Storms near this place

28 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cosmos in 28 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 15 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud, 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
June 2003Thunderstorm WindCosmos$500,000Numerous trees down in a wide swath that originated in Kandiyohi County and extended into Meeker, Renville and McLeod Counties. Sheds and outbuildings were blown over across an approximate area of 40 to 50 square miles. Several grain bins were damaged, and the roof of the Cedar Mills liquor store was removed. The damage survey revealed that winds were from the north-northwest.
June 2012Thunderstorm WindCosmos$50,000A line of severe straight-line winds caused numerous large trees to snap off, and power poles to bend over around Cosmos.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindCosmos$50,000Numerous trees and power lines were blown down from near Cosmos, northeast of Cosmos where a farm was damaged.
June 2025Thunderstorm WindCosmos-Thunderstorm winds estimated at 60 mph downed powerlines 4 miles north of Cosmos.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindCosmos-Tree down in Cosmos.
July 2016HailCosmos-Several observers and trained spotters reported hail up to the size of hen eggs around Cosmos.
August 2016Heavy RainCosmos-A trained spotter measured 5.48 inches of rain in Cosmos.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindCosmos-Tree down.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindCosmos-Large tree down.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindCosmos-Numerous trees were downed.
May 2000Tornado (F0)Cosmos-Barn toppled.
July 1999Thunderstorm WindCosmos-Estimated winds. Numerous powerlines down.
June 1998HailCosmos-Hailed for 10 minutes.
June 1997Thunderstorm WindCosmos-Trees down. Estimated windspeed.
June 1997HailCosmos-5000 acres with varying degrees of crop damage. Some soybean fields a total loss.
June 1997HailCosmos-Some crop damage.
June 1997HailCosmos-5 inches of rain also reported.
August 2024HailCosmos-no account filed
June 2011HailCosmos-no account filed
July 2011HailCosmos-no account filed
September 2005HailCosmos-no account filed
July 2003HailCosmos-no account filed
June 2002HailCosmos-no account filed
June 1998Funnel CloudCosmos-no account filed
July 1997HailCosmos-no account filed
July 1997HailCosmos-no account filed
June 1997HailCosmos-no account filed
September 1993HailCosmos-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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Corvuso4.9 miles9
Rosendale7.2 miles8
Strout8.4 miles10
Cedar Mills9.2 miles9
Beckville10.3 miles10
Acton10.4 miles8
Greenleaf11.3 miles11
Grove City14.8 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 CosmosAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q766219The 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 641518. 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.