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Williams, Minnesota

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1918 and the latest in 1976. It stands in Williams City. It lies in ZIP code area 56686. The Survey maps it on the Williams quadrangle. 157 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,152 feet above sea level.

Williams within Lake of the Woods County

Population over time

2 figures

Williams fell from 191 to 157 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
2010191
2020157-34 (-18%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 8 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

92 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 92 fires within 5 miles of Williams between 1993 and 2020, burning about 2,184 acres in total. None started naturally. 28 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 burning34
Arson/incendiarism28
Missing data/not specified/undetermined11
Railroad operations and maintenance10
Equipment and vehicle use6
Smoking1
Recreation and ceremony1
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
3 September 2018Debris and open burning2.4 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
8 August 2003Debris and open burning1.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
4 August 2010Railroad operations and maintenance1.7 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
30 August 2008Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
30 August 2006Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
22 August 2006Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
21 August 2006Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
23 July 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Lake of the Woods County

Storms near this place

32 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Williams in 32 storm reports between 1998 and 2023: 21 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 2 funnel cloud. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2001Flash FloodWilliams$10,000Basement flooding was reported along with water pooling in yards.
September 2002Thunderstorm WindWilliams$5,000Many large trees were snapped off or uprooted near Norris Camp.
July 1999Thunderstorm WindWilliams$5,000Trees were blown down, some falling on cars and power lines.
March 2009FloodWilliams$5,000no account filed
May 2023Thunderstorm WindWilliams-Delayed report. Several trees with 6 to 8-inch diameter branches down and small piles of hail were still present in the morning after. Time estimated off radar.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindWilliams-Peak wind was measured by an NDAWN station at the 10 meter height.
July 2019Funnel CloudWilliams-A thunderstorm with a wall cloud and intermittent funnel tracked east-northeast across Zippel Bay. Due to the high cloud base, the funnel was visible over a wide area.
September 2018HailWilliams-The hail was mostly dime to nickel size.
August 2015Thunderstorm WindWilliams-A pine tree was blown down onto a house.
September 2013HailWilliams-A wall cloud was also reported.
September 2013HailWilliams-Ping pong ball sized hail fell, knocking branches off some trees.
September 2013Tornado (EF0)Williams-This tornado tracked intermittently with damage mainly to occasional broken tree branches. Peak winds estimated to 70 mph.
June 2008Funnel CloudWilliams-A persistent wall cloud produced a brief funnel over the open waters of the lake of the woods to the northeast of zippel bay.
August 2006Tornado (F0)Williams-This tornado originated 1 mile north of Swift in Roseau County at 1822 CST. Peak winds were estimated at 65 mph.
July 2022HailWilliams-no account filed
May 2011HailWilliams-no account filed
June 2008HailWilliams-no account filed
August 2006HailWilliams-no account filed
June 2005HailWilliams-no account filed
June 2004HailWilliams-no account filed
July 2004HailWilliams-no account filed
July 2003HailWilliams-no account filed
September 2003HailWilliams-no account filed
July 2002HailWilliams-no account filed
July 2001HailWilliams-no account filed
July 2000HailWilliams-no account filed
July 2000HailWilliams-no account filed
July 2000HailWilliams-no account filed
June 1999HailWilliams-no account filed
September 1999HailWilliams-no account filed
July 1998HailWilliams-no account filed
June 1998HailWilliams-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lake of the Woods 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
Graceton6.6 miles8
Faunce12.1 miles8
Pitt12.1 miles8
Birch Beach12.8 miles7
Hackett13.0 miles7
Arnesén14.3 miles9
Long Point14.4 miles7
Wheelers Point14.5 miles7

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 WilliamsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q963315The 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 654165. 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.