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Florence, Minnesota

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Shelburne Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56170. The Survey maps it on the Ruthton quadrangle. 28 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,732 feet above sea level.

Florence within Lyon County

Population over time

2 figures

Florence fell from 39 to 28 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
201039
202028-11 (-28%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 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.

In the county-history sources

1,535 words on this township

History of Lyon County, published 1884; An Illustrated History of Lyon County, Minnesota, published 1912 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Shelburne Township covers the township.

Read the chapter on Shelburne Township - 1,535 words.

Fires near this place

1 since 2014

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Florence in 2014, burning about 123 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
Debris and open burning1

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
15 April 2014Debris and open burning123 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Every fire recorded in Lyon County

Storms near this place

17 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Florence in 17 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 6 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 3 flood, 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
March 2019FloodFlorence$510,000U.S. Highway 14 between 300th Avenue and County Road 54 was covered by water. Other flooding resulted in damage to public infrastructure including county and township roads and culverts. The property damage costs include estimates for public property losses.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindFlorence$10,000Thunderstorm winds blew down trees and power lines, and blew over a truck.
August 2025Thunderstorm WindFlorence-Thunderstorm wind gusts were measured by a Road Weather Information System sensor near Florence.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindFlorence-Occasional thunderstorm wind gusts as high as 65 mph were measured at Minnesota Road Weather Information System site MN160 near Florence.
August 2023HailFlorence-Pea size hail transitioned into quarter size after initial contact.
May 2022Thunderstorm WindFlorence-A thunderstorm wind gust of 80 mph was measured by Minnesota Road Weather Information System site at Florence.
May 2022Thunderstorm WindFlorence-A thunderstorm wind gust of 59 mph was measured by the Minnesota Road Weather Information System site near Florence.
June 2020HailFlorence-Considerable dime size hail fell near Florence. Crop damage is an estimate from insured losses. Information provided by the United States Department of Agriculture.
June 2019FloodFlorence-During crop planting season, prolonged flooding led to the loss of or inability to plant crops across the area. Crop loss estimates provided by the United States Department of Agriculture.
July 2019Flash FloodFlorence-Creeks flooding with water standing in some fields along U.S. Highway 14.
September 2019FloodFlorence-Flooding resulted in crop losses across the area. Crop loss estimates provided by the United States Department of Agriculture.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindFlorence-Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage and tossed a farm wagon.
July 2002HailFlorence-Large hail caused damage to vehicles, windows, and crops, The amount of damage was not known.
May 1993Tornado (F1)Florence-A tornado tore through the town of Florence and traveled northeast before dissipating. The tornado damaged a local bar, several mobile homes and downed several trees and powerlines.
April 2005HailFlorence-no account filed
June 2005HailFlorence-no account filed
June 1996HailFlorence-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lyon 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
Burchard3.5 miles9
Russell7.8 miles9
Balaton9.5 miles10
Lynd13.4 miles9
Garvin15.8 miles10
Amiret19.6 miles9
Village Park19.6 miles11
Marshall20.1 miles11

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 FlorenceAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1924404The 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 643753. 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.