Silver Lake, Minnesota
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Hale Township. It lies in ZIP code area 55381. The Survey maps it on the Silver Lake quadrangle. 866 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,063 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresSilver Lake grew from 837 to 866 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 837 | |
| 2020 | 866 | +29 (+3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 10 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 New Ulm quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Glencoe quadrangle1:62500
- 1958 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Silver Lake quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Glencoe quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
2 since 2005Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Silver Lake between 2005 and 2020, burning about 70 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 April 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 25 acres | Litchfield Wetland Management District | BART |
| 8 November 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 45 acres | Litchfield Wetland Management District | MNLFR-FY21-WF-SILVER LAKE WF |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
30 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Silver Lake in 30 storm reports between 1998 and 2022: 13 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 1 lightning. 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1998 | Tornado (F1) | Silver Lake | $500,000 | Brief tornado touchdown destroying 6 farm buildings and damaged homestead. Debris hurled over nearby Butternut Lake. Posts driven 2 feet into the ground. |
| May 2011 | Lightning | Silver Lake | $25,000 | Lightning struck a home west of Silver Lake. |
| July 2022 | Funnel Cloud | Silver Lake | - | The local fire department reported a funnel cloud northwest of Silver Lake. This was also confirmed by a trained spotter. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Silver Lake | - | Several trees were blocking the road near the intersection of Lake Hook Road, and 235th Street, and along County Road 7 and 230th Street. Power outages were reported in townships around Hutchinson. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Silver Lake | - | Several large tree branches were blown down and blocking portions of County Road 2 near Silver Lake. |
| June 2019 | Hail | Silver Lake | - | A swath of large hail, up to golf ball size, occurred between Silver Lake, and Lester Prairie. |
| July 2019 | Tornado (EF1) | South Silver Lake | - | An EF1 tornado spun up southeast of Silver Lake and quickly became 1/4 mile wide (440 yards), as it tracked northeast across Highway 7 before dissipating 3 miles east-northeast of Silver Lake. Corn was flattened, a few outbuildings were destroyed, and many trees were damaged. |
| July 2019 | Tornado (EF0) | South Silver Lake | - | A brief EF0 tornado spun up southeast of Silver Lake and produced a little damage to some trees. |
| July 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | South Silver Lake | - | A severe downburst wind caused a large tree to blow down south of Silver Lake. |
| September 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Silver Lake | - | Several large tree limbs, and one large tree were blown down northwest of Silver Lake, including an area of flattened corn in the same area of the downed tree limbs. |
| June 2010 | Hail | Silver Lake | - | Several reports of hail up to ping pong size, occurred from Silver Lake, northeast to Winsted, Minnesota. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Silver Lake | - | Few trees down. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Silver Lake | - | Trees were downed around town. A transformer blew off a pole and could not be found. A power line was downed into a ditch near the intersection of Jade Avenue and 220th Street about two miles north of town. |
| September 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Silver Lake | - | Several trees and power lines were downed. |
| September 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Silver Lake | - | Trees and power lines were downed at the intersection of Park Avenue and Frank Street. One tree was felled onto a vehicle. |
| April 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Silver Lake | - | Trees were damaged at the intersection of 180th St. and Kale Ave. SW. |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Silver Lake | - | Trees were downed onto Kale Aveunue. The time was estimated. |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Silver Lake | - | Numerous trees down, including one on a garage. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Silver Lake | - | Trees and power lines toppled. Estimated windspeed. |
| July 2016 | Hail | Silver Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2012 | Hail | Silver Lake | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Silver Lake | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Silver Lake | - | no account filed |
| September 2006 | Hail | Silver Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Hail | Silver Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Silver Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Silver Lake | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Silver Lake | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Hail | Silver Lake | - | no account filed |
| May 2001 | Hail | Silver Lake | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Silver Lake | 1.3 miles | 10 | |
| Koniska | 4.2 miles | 10 | |
| Komensky | 4.3 miles | 11 | |
| Sherman | 4.5 miles | 10 | |
| Biscay | 6.7 miles | 10 | |
| Lester Prairie | 8.3 miles | 10 | |
| Winsted | 8.9 miles | 10 | |
| Country Acres | 9.0 miles | 10 |
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 Silver Lake | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2227133 | 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 652059. 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.






