BlockBefore

South West City, Missouri

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1907 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Prairie Township. It lies in ZIP code area 64863. The Survey maps it on the South West City quadrangle. 922 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 938 feet above sea level.

South West City within McDonald County

Population over time

2 figures

South West City fell from 970 to 922 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
2010970
2020922-48 (-5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 13 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

50 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 50 fires within 5 miles of South West City between 1992 and 2018, burning about 1,897 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 17 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
Arson/incendiarism17
Missing data/not specified/undetermined12
Debris and open burning12
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Natural2
Equipment and vehicle use2
Smoking2
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
7 September 1998Recreation and ceremony2.0 acresOklahoma Division of Forestrynot named
7 August 2011Arson/incendiarism20 acresOklahoma Division of Forestry30424
6 August 2006Natural7.0 acresOklahoma Division of Forestry30553
27 August 2012Naturalunder an acreOklahoma Division of Forestry30387
17 August 2000Debris and open burningunder an acreOklahoma Division of Forestrynot named
10 August 2006Arson/incendiarism15 acresOklahoma Division of Forestry30567
8 July 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
19 July 2011Debris and open burning1.0 acresOklahoma Division of Forestry30346

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in McDonald 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 South West City: 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
UnkSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown

Every working recorded in McDonald County

Storms near this place

20 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names South West City in 20 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 8 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 4 flash flood, 1 tornado. 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
May 2011Tornado (EF3)South West City2 hurt, $1,000,000A storm survey concluded that an EF-3 tornado crossed into McDonald County from adjacent Delaware County, Oklahoma. The tornado crossed Stateline Road 2.8 miles north of Southwest City, Missouri at 7:26 pm and destroyed a single family resident and vehicles near the residence. The vehicles rolled up to 200 yards away from the house. Several trees were uprooted along the path of the tornado as it tracked southeast towards chicken houses near the intersection of Highway 43 and Farm Road 4385. The tornado lifted right before reaching Highway 43 about 2.2 miles north northeast of Southwest City. Maximum wind speeds were estimated between 150 and 160 mph. The maximum width of the path was estimated at a quarter of a mile wide.
January 2008Flash FloodSouth West City$500,000Training supercell thunderstorms caused major flash flooding in countless locations of McDonald County. Numerous roads and low water crossings were washed away. A picket fence two miles south of Noel along Higwhay 59 was completely washed away and destroyed.
July 1995Thunderstorm WindSouth West City$5,000Thunderstorm winds down tree limbs in South West City and broke windows in Noel.
June 2025Thunderstorm WindSouth West City$2,000A tree and large branches were downed in Southwest city.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindSouth West City$2,000Several power lines were reported down.
August 1998Thunderstorm WindSouth West City$2,000no account filed
July 2014Thunderstorm WindSouth West City$1,000A large tree was blown down onto a farm building near South West City. Minor damage to the structure occurred.
July 2018HailSouth West City-Up to nickle size hail was reported.
August 2010Flash FloodSouth West City-Excessive rainfall caused significant street flooding.
April 2008Flash FloodSouth West City-Numerous road closures across the county occurred in response to flash flooding.
March 2008HailSouth West City-Hail and up to 50 MPH winds were reported.
March 2017HailSouth West City-no account filed
March 2006HailSouth West City-no account filed
June 2005Thunderstorm WindSouth West City-no account filed
June 2005HailSouth West City-no account filed
June 2005HailSouth West City-no account filed
August 2003HailSouth West City-no account filed
May 2003Flash FloodSouth West City-no account filed
May 1999Thunderstorm WindSouth West City-no account filed
March 1996HailSouth West City-no account filed

Every storm recorded in McDonald 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
Saratoga3.5 miles13
Pack4.2 miles13
Spring Valley6.5 miles13
Armstrong Quarry6.8 miles13
Noel7.1 miles13
Mount Shira9.1 miles13
Ginger Blue9.6 miles13
Elk Springs9.6 miles13

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 South West CityAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q968090The 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 758447. 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.