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Rice, Minnesota

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1948 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Rice City. It lies in ZIP code area 56367. The Survey maps it on the Rice quadrangle. 1,975 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,063 feet above sea level.

Rice within Benton County

On record in Rice

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Rice grew from 1,275 to 1,975 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
20101,275
20201,975+700 (+55%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 10 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

128 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 128 fires within 5 miles of Rice between 1992 and 2019, burning about 228 acres in total. None started naturally. 15 were 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 burning50
Equipment and vehicle use16
Arson/incendiarism15
Railroad operations and maintenance15
Recreation and ceremony11
Missing data/not specified/undetermined11
Smoking7
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
7 September 1998Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
21 September 2012Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
15 September 1998Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
31 August 2013Power generation/transmission/distribution1.2 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
31 August 2003Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
31 August 2003Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
31 August 2003Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
22 August 2013Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Benton County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Rice: 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Benton County Marl BedLimestone, GeneralOccurrence

Every working recorded in Benton County

Storms near this place

25 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rice in 25 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 16 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud, 1 lightning. The reports record 1 injury. 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
August 2010Thunderstorm WindRice1 hurt, $50,000Many hundreds, perhaps thousands of trees were uprooted, snapped or broken in an eight mile wide swath that extended from the western edge of the county, near Rice to Watab, to just north of Sartell, to north central Benton County, in Graham Township, centered near State Highway 25 and County Road 77. In addition, a local Minnesota Department of Transportation Weather Station near Rice, measured a wind gust of 64 knots. A semi-truck was blown over near Rice along Highway 10, resulting in one injury. Plus, a spotter on the northeast shore of Little Rock Lake measured a wind gust of 81 mph before his tower collapsed and the anemometer ceased to function. The intense wind blew from the southwest. Hundreds of large and healthy trees were broken or snapped, blocking roads. The storm survey team concluded a downburst hit the area.
June 2015LightningRice$5,000Local officials determined that lightning started a fire, and also damaged a gas meter in Rice, Minnesota. The damage was limited mostly to the exterior of the house.
June 2025Thunderstorm WindRice-Mesonet station MN064 T.h.10 - Rice - Mp 162 measured a thunderstorm wind gust of 60 mph.
September 2019Thunderstorm WindRice-A Minnesota Department of Transportation wind sensor measured a wind gust of 65 mph.
March 2017HailRice-A swath of large hail, up to quarter size, fell near Rice, and northeast of Rice to the Morrison County line. Almost all of the hail was dime size or smaller.
June 2009HailRice-Local Law Enforcement officials and the Emergency Manager reported a nearly continuous path of large hail that fell across northern Benton County from near Rice, northeast to Brennyville. This path is the extension of the hail swath across northern Stearns County. Most of the hail was nickel to quarter size and had depths over 6 inches in some places. The largest hail stone was around tennis ball size.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindRice-Wind gust occurred on US Highway 10 Mile post 162.
June 2007HailRice-Some crop damage was reported.
June 2005Funnel CloudRice-A trained spotter reported a funnel cloud.
July 2002Thunderstorm WindRice-Scattered trees down.
July 1999Thunderstorm WindRice-Large branches down. Estimated windspeed.
May 2022Thunderstorm WindRice-no account filed
June 2012HailRice-no account filed
July 2011HailRice-no account filed
May 2008HailRice-no account filed
August 2007HailRice-no account filed
July 2003HailRice-no account filed
July 2002HailRice-no account filed
July 1999HailRice-no account filed
July 1999HailRice-no account filed
July 1999HailRice-no account filed
May 1998HailRice-no account filed
May 1998HailRice-no account filed
June 1997HailRice-no account filed
July 1995HailRice-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Benton 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
Rockwood Estates2.1 miles13
Watab5.6 miles13
Mayhew6.4 miles11
Fruitville7.9 miles11
Evergreen Village9.3 miles12
Sauk Rapids11.4 miles12
Popple Creek12.1 miles11
Jakeville12.4 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 RiceAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2249511The 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 649962. 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.