Lima, Montana
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Lima-Centennial Valley census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59739. It stands on Alder Creek. The Survey maps it on the Lima quadrangle. 212 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,257 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresLima fell from 221 to 212 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 | 221 | |
| 2020 | 212 | -9 (-4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 11 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.
- 1955 USGS Dubois quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Dubois quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS Lima quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1987 USGS Lima quadrangle1:100000
- 1992 USGS Lima quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
4 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Lima between 1999 and 2001, burning about 255 acres in total. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 August 1999 | Smoking | 170 acres | Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest | JUNCTION CREEK |
| 17 August 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 81 acres | Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest | JUNCTION CREEK |
| 26 July 2000 | Natural | 2.0 acres | Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest | DUTCH HOLLOW |
| 6 May 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest | CHUTE CANYON |
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Lima: 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Barium-Barite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Rock Basin | Barium-Barite | Unknown |
Storms near this place
16 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lima in 16 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 8 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 2 heavy rain. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lima | - | Mesonet station LMRM8 Antelope RAWS. Time of the gust is estimated given the station reports once per hour and reports a peak wind gust over the prior hour. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lima | - | Mesonet ANTELOPE RAWs station measured a 61 mph wind gust. Time estimated by radar. |
| August 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lima | - | RAWS station LMRM8 Antelope measured a 67 mph gust. Time was estimated given RAWS sensors only report once per hour. |
| June 2020 | Heavy Rain | Lima | - | Mesonet station Antelope raws lmrm8. |
| June 2020 | Heavy Rain | Lima | - | Mesonet station Harkness raws hrkm8. |
| July 2019 | Hail | Lima | - | A trained spotter reported hail sized one inch in diameter. |
| August 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lima | - | Antelope RAWS, about five-miles NE of Lima, reported 58-mph peak gust from thunderstorm. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lima | - | A thunderstorm produced a wind gust to 60 mph at Lima 4NE (the Antelope RAWS site). |
| August 2008 | Hail | Lima | - | A severe thunderstorm dropped 1 inch diameter hail at Lima 3SE. |
| August 2008 | Hail | Lima | - | A severe thunderstorm dropped 1.25 inch diameter hail at Lima 6ESE. The hail contributed to a vehicle accident on Interstate 15. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lima | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Lima | - | no account filed |
| August 1999 | Hail | Lima | - | no account filed |
| August 1999 | Hail | Lima | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Hail | Lima | - | no account filed |
| August 1997 | Hail | Lima | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dell | 8.2 miles | 12 | |
| Kidd | 14.2 miles | 11 | |
| Monida | 15.6 miles | 10 | |
| Nicholia (historical) | 17.7 miles | 10 | |
| Red Rock | 21.8 miles | 10 | |
| Hildreth | 23.9 miles | 12 | |
| Armstead (historical) | 27.3 miles | 10 | |
| Grayling | 30.8 miles | 16 |
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 Lima | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q959029 | 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 773340. 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.




