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Winifred, Montana

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Winifred census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59489. It lies near Sig Larson Coulee. The Survey maps it on the Winifred East quadrangle. 172 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,235 feet above sea level.

Winifred within Fergus County

On record in Winifred

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Winifred fell from 208 to 172 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
2010208
2020172-36 (-17%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

3 surveys from 7 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

9 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 9 fires within 5 miles of Winifred between 1998 and 2020, burning about 1,214 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/undetermined4
Equipment and vehicle use2
Debris and open burning1
Natural1
Other causes1

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 2018Other causes1,095 acresNorth Central Montana DistrictROSE CREEK
18 September 1998Naturalunder an acreNorth Central Montana DistrictSHRIMP
28 July 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined6.0 acresNortheastern Land Officenot named
26 July 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined70 acresNortheastern Land Officenot named
22 July 2017Equipment and vehicle use40 acresNortheastern Land Officenot named
14 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFergus CountyFDH-MTLG08-118
13 July 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresNortheastern Land Officenot named
10 July 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNortheastern Land Officenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Fergus County

Storms near this place

33 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Winifred in 33 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 19 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 1 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
September 2000HailWinifred$2,000Damage to house and vehicle.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindWinifred-Montana mesonet station Woodhawk (acewinif) measured a 60 mph gust.
June 2016HailWinifred-A thunderstorm dropped 1.75 inch diameter hail at Winifred 12W.
August 2016Thunderstorm WindWinifred-A thunderstorm produced a wind gust to 60 mph at Winifred 3NE. Also, a thunderstorm dropped 1 inch diameter hail at Winifred 1SSE.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindWinifred-A thunderstorm produced a wind gust to 60 mph at Winifred 8SW. Also, a thunderstorm produced a gust to 58 mph at Winifred 1S.
March 2014FloodWinifred-Ice jam formation along the Missouri River caused flooding at the James Kipp State Park recreation area.
July 2011HailWinifred-A thunderstorm dropped 1 inch diameter hail at Winifred 17NE.
July 2011HailWinifred-A thunderstorm dropped 1 inch diameter hail at Winifred 4NE.
July 2011HailWinifred-A thunderstorm dropped 1.75 inch diameter hail at Winifred 1SSE.
July 2011HailWinifred-A thunderstorm dropped 1.75 inch diameter hail at Winifred 5E.
July 2011HailWinifred-A thunderstorm dropped 1 inch diameter hail at Winifred 5WNW.
June 2007HailWinifred-A severe thunderstorm dropped 1.25 inch diameter hail at Winifred. The hail broke most windows of the west side of numerous houses and covered the ground to a depth of one and one-half inches. The storm also produced a wind gust to 71 mph.
September 2007HailWinifred-A severe thunderstorm dropped .88 inch diameter hail at Winifred.
June 2005Tornado (F0)Winifred-A tornado was spotted by campers along the Missouri River between Winifred and Highway 191. Minimal damage was reported to fences in the area.
July 2002HailWinifred-A severe thunderstorm produced 0.75 inch hail at Winifred 10NE.
July 2002Thunderstorm WindWinifred-A severe thunderstorm produced a 67 mph wind gust at Winifred.
August 2002HailWinifred-A severe thunderstorm produced 2.75 inch hail at Winifred 11NW.
August 2002HailWinifred-A severe thunderstorm produced 1.25 inch hail at Winifred 20NE.
August 2002Tornado (F0)Winifred-A tornado was spotted over rural areas in Northwest Fergus County, about 10 miles southwest of Winifred. No damage was reported.
September 2002HailWinifred-A severe thunderstorm produced 1.00 inch hail at Winifred 3E.
July 2001Thunderstorm WindWinifred-Actual spotter location Winifred 1 S.
July 2000Thunderstorm WindWinifred-1.25 inch hail and wind gust to 52kt.
June 2005HailWinifred-no account filed
July 2005Thunderstorm WindWinifred-no account filed
August 2004HailWinifred-no account filed
July 2004HailWinifred-no account filed
August 2004HailWinifred-no account filed
September 2000Funnel CloudWinifred-no account filed
July 1998Thunderstorm WindWinifred-no account filed
July 1997Thunderstorm WindWinifred-no account filed
May 1997Thunderstorm WindWinifred-no account filed
June 1996HailWinifred-no account filed
June 1996HailWinifred-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Fergus 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
Suffolk6.3 miles8
Rumble Creek (historical)6.6 miles7
Cone Butte (historical)7.4 miles8
Salt Creek (historical)9.2 miles8
Christina12.4 miles8
Woodhawk (historical)14.2 miles7
Moulton14.7 miles8
Judith (historical)18.0 miles8

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 WinifredAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q959105The 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 778598. 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.