BlockBefore

Searles, Minnesota

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Cottonwood Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56073. The Survey maps it on the Hanska quadrangle. 192 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 997 feet above sea level.

Searles within Brown County

Population over time

2 figures

Searles grew from 171 to 192 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
2010171
2020192+21 (+12%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 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

4 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Searles between 2001 and 2008, burning under an acre 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 burning2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1
Recreation and ceremony1

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
27 June 2007Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
31 May 2001Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
14 May 2008Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
9 October 2003Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Brown 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 Searles: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
New Ulm Quartzite QuarriesStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer

Every working recorded in Brown County

Storms near this place

12 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Searles in 12 storm reports between 2002 and 2022: 4 tornado, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 flood. The reports record 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2006Tornado (F0)Searles2 hurt, $200,000The tornado tore across corn and bean fields, and crossed both Highways 15 and 68. It blew two semis off Highway 15, injuring two individuals. A machine shed was destroyed, and minor damage was incurred by some barns and outbuildings.
May 2022Tornado (EF0)Searles-The tornado hit several groves of trees and damaged a farm. Portions of roofs from three outbuildings were torn off. Maximum winds were estimated at 80 mph.
August 2017Heavy RainSearles-A local observer reported 5.65 inches of rainfall in a 12 hour period.
July 2017Thunderstorm WindSearles-Power lines were blown down near Searles.
June 2016Flash FloodSearles-Shag road on the southeast side of New Ulm was closed by high water. The railroad crossing at Pineapple Lane near on Shag Road was washed out.
August 2016Thunderstorm WindSearles-A spotter with a wind sensor measured a 60 knot wind gust. There was also tree blown down in the area, with power outages and some nearby soybean fields flattened.
March 2011FloodSearles-Several county roads became impassable due to Spring snow melt and rainfall that continued through the end of the month.
July 2003Tornado (F0)Searles-Brief touchdown in open field as videotaped by storm chaser. This tornado was from a different supercell than that which produced a tornado 6 W Searles at 1830. The supercell which spawned this tornado 1 N Searles went on to produce six more tornadoes: 5 in Blue Earth County and 1 in Waseca County.
July 2003Tornado (F0)Searles-Tornado tore across corn fields and several groves of trees. Videotaped by storm chasers.
June 2002HailSearles-Ground white.
May 2017Thunderstorm WindSearles-no account filed
May 2016HailSearles-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Brown 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
Linden3.5 miles9
New Ulm5.9 miles11
Hanska6.3 miles9
Traulich Estates8.1 miles11
Essig11.2 miles10
Stark11.4 miles9
Godahl13.7 miles9
Iberia13.8 miles9

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 SearlesAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7441764The 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 651814. 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.