BlockSteele Center, Minnesota
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Somerset Township. It lies in ZIP code area 55060. The Survey maps it on the Steele Center quadrangle.
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 7 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.
- 1954 USGS Mason City quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Mason City quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Mason City quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Steele Center quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Albert Lea quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
1,140 words on this townshipGeographical and Statistical History of Steele County from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time. Embracing Leading Incidents of Pioneer Life, Names of Early Settlers ... &c, published 1868 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.
The chapter on Somerset Township covers the township.
Read the chapter on Somerset Township - 1,140 words.
Fires near this place
1 since 2012Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Steele Center in 2012, burning about 1 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 |
|---|---|
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 November 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge | LINCOLN |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
6 since 2005Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Steele Center in 6 storm reports between 2005 and 2025: 3 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2025 | Hail | Steele Center | - | Measurement provided via social media. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Steele Center | - | Several trees were downed along County Road 3. |
| December 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Steele Center | - | A highway sign and an electronic message sign along Interstate 35 were blown down. Just to the southwest, new power poles were noted to have been erected. Damage was too scant to determine whether this had been from a tornado. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Steele Center | - | Measured by MNDOT road weather sensor. |
| March 2007 | Hail | Steele Center | - | no account filed |
| March 2005 | Hail | Steele Center | - | 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.
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 654962. 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.