Holmes City, Minnesota
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Holmes City Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56308. The Survey maps it on the Farwell quadrangle. It stands 1,388 feet above sea level.
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 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.
- 1953 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS Farwell quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Lake Minnewaska quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
21 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 21 fires within 5 miles of Holmes City between 1993 and 2020, burning about 77 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 burning | 13 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 August 2004 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 14 July 2008 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 June 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 4 May 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | TOWER HILLS FIRE |
| 3 May 2007 | Debris and open burning | 6.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 May 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 May 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 April 2010 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Holmes City: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Limestone, General. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas County Marl Bed | Limestone, General | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
15 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Holmes City in 15 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 7 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud, 1 flash flood. The reports record 1 death and 2 injuries. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Holmes City | 1 killed, 1 hurt, $25,000 | A tree fell on a camper, and unfortunately one of the two individuals inside the camper was killed. The other individual was injured and hospitalized. |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Holmes City | 1 hurt | Large trees toppled, one onto a camper; slight injury to man inside. Estimated winds. |
| April 2012 | Tornado (EF0) | Holmes City | $100,000 | Local law enforcement officials confirmed that a tornado briefly touched down northeast of Farwell, Minnesota. Based on damage of a 30-40 foot pole barn, and minor damage to a second barn, the tornado was rated an EF0 with top winds of 75 mph. |
| July 2011 | Flash Flood | Holmes City | $100,000 | Two waves of very heavy rainfall occurred between 6 and 8 am, and started causing significant flooding around the communities of Carlos, Alexandria, and Osakis, Minnesota. Nearly 7 inches of rain fell in a short period of time near Osakis, where local officials reported several inches of water over the roadways. A few areas received basement flooding and a local high school reported flooding in classrooms. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Holmes City | $50,000 | Numerous large trees and power lines were blown down from near Holmes City, to Forada, Minnesota. |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Holmes City | - | The roof was blown off a store. |
| July 2024 | Hail | Holmes City | - | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Hail | Holmes City | - | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Hail | Holmes City | - | no account filed |
| September 2019 | Hail | Holmes City | - | no account filed |
| August 2011 | Hail | Holmes City | - | no account filed |
| August 2010 | Funnel Cloud | Holmes City | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Holmes City | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Hail | Holmes City | - | no account filed |
| August 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Holmes City | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garfield | 7.8 miles | 9 | |
| Kensington | 9.1 miles | 9 | |
| Alexandria | 9.4 miles | 9 | |
| Brandon | 9.6 miles | 9 | |
| Forada | 10.2 miles | 10 | |
| Hiview Park | 11.6 miles | 11 | |
| Evansville | 14.0 miles | 9 | |
| Nelson | 15.2 miles | 11 |
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 Holmes City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5883530 | 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 645100. 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.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, 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.




