Tower City, North Dakota
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Tower City City. It lies in ZIP code area 58071. The Survey maps it on the Tower City quadrangle. 268 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,171 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresTower City grew from 253 to 268 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 | 253 | |
| 2020 | 268 | +15 (+6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 10 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.
- 1897 USGS Tower quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1953 USGS Fargo quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Fargo quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Tower City quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Casselton quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1989 USGS Fargo quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
11 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Tower City between 2015 and 2020, burning about 25 acres 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 September 2020 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | 10000134 |
| 10 August 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | 10000112 |
| 14 July 2017 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | 1000102 |
| 3 June 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | North Dakota State Forest Service | TOWER CITY BALE FIRE |
| 3 June 2019 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | 1000110 |
| 26 May 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | North Dakota State Forest Service | 2018-35 |
| 17 April 2015 | Smoking | 12 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | MAPLE RIVER BOTTOM FIRE |
| 7 December 2020 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | 1000139 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
29 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Tower City in 29 storm reports between 1998 and 2022: 16 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 4 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tower City | $2,500,000 | A six mile stretch of high voltage power towers was crumpled by a combination of downburst winds and at least one tornado through Central Hill Township. At least 28 steel four pole towers, operated by Western Area Power Administration, were destroyed. One tower in adjacent Barnes County was also destroyed. Extensive crop damage occurred across Hill and Howes Townships. |
| July 2007 | Tornado (EF2) | Tower City | $2,500,000 | The tornado plowed through wooden power poles and viciously ripped up mature trees over its damage path. The tornado also damaged a sturdy pole shed, where the sidewall was caved in and the roof and rafters were torn off. It tore the roof off and collapsed an older barn, then lifted and threw a well-built two car garage from its slab foundation. The tornado crumpled one steel, four footing, high voltage power tower. In combination with extreme downburst winds, the collapse of this first tower helped initiate the collapse of dozens more of these power towers. Peak winds were estimated at 130 mph. |
| July 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tower City | $1,000,000 | Widespread nickel to golfball sized hail and downburst winds affected much of Cornell and Tower City Townships. |
| July 2007 | Tornado (EF1) | Tower City | $1,000,000 | The tornado touched down on the northeast side of Tower City in Cass County and tracked to the south-southwest. In Tower City, the tornado ripped off a section from the roof of a house and tossed garden storage buildings and equipment. The tornado also blew a single car garage off its foundation and destroyed it. Several trees in town were damaged or blown down. Peak winds were estimated at 110 mph. |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tower City | $600,000 | Seven 80 foot tall 345 KV high voltage power transmission towers were blown down. |
| July 2004 | Tornado (F2) | Tower City | $500,000 | The tornado knocked down high voltage power lines and three metal towers north of Tower City. Several farm buildings were also damaged northeast of Tower City. |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tower City | $100,000 | Numerous large trees were snapped off at the base. Power went out in town causing some residents to have sewer backup. Cass County Electric Cooperative reported 40 power poles downed between Tower City and Gardner with 1300 customers without power. |
| June 2008 | Tornado (EF0) | Tower City | $10,000 | This tornado originated in Barnes County and continued with intermittent touchdowns into Cass County for about one more mile. It lifted about 2 miles north-northeast of Tower City. Peak winds were estimated at 80 mph. |
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tower City | $10,000 | Grain bins were damaged and trees were blown down in Tower City. Three of the city's 8 streets were blocked by trees and power was out for 4 hours. One tree fell on a church, causing substantial damage. |
| July 2022 | Hail | Tower City | - | Received a public report of dime to quarter sized hail. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tower City | - | Several trees were blown down in town. |
| September 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tower City | - | Shingles were blown off a roof. |
| June 2018 | Hail | Tower City | - | The wind driven hail stripped fields and gardens. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Tower City | - | Dime to quarter size hail fell. |
| May 2010 | Funnel Cloud | Tower City | - | A rotating wall cloud was viewed by a meteorologist located near Tower City. |
| July 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tower City | - | The wind tore a roof off a house and bent trees to the ground. Many large tree branches were broken off around town. |
| August 2018 | Hail | Tower City | - | no account filed |
| July 2007 | Hail | Tower City | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Tower City | - | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | Tower City | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Tower City | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Hail | Tower City | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Hail | Tower City | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Tower City | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Hail | Tower City | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Hail | Tower City | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Tower City | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Hail | Tower City | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Hail | Tower City | - | 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.
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 Tower City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q48791 | 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 1036349. 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.





