Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Palmer, Massachusetts

35 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Palmer Town City. It lies in ZIP code area 01069. It stands on Chicopee Brook. The Survey maps it on the Palmer quadrangle. 3,900 people lived here at the 2000 count. It stands 344 feet above sea level.

Palmer within Hampden County

Then and now

1887 to 1985

The same ground, surveyed 98 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Palmer, surveyed 1985

Topographic sheet of Palmer, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

35 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 nearby

84 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 84 fires within 5 miles of Palmer between 2015 and 2020, burning about 78 acres in total. 11 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
Equipment and vehicle use	44
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	13
Natural	11
Recreation and ceremony	10
Debris and open burning	3
Smoking	1
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
Railroad operations and maintenance	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
9 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 September 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
24 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
22 September 2018	Natural	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
12 September 2016	Natural	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
9 August 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
8 August 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 August 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hampden County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,099 shown

Museums hold 1,099 specimens collected within 10 miles of Palmer between 1857 and 1975: 550 Fungi, 300 Plantae, 229 Animalia, 15 Chromista, 5 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. E. Kirk, A. Lavallee and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Polygonum pensylvanicum L.	1897	Morris,E.L. s.n. [1897-08]	[label: Flora of North America - Herbarium of E.L. Morris] Monson. Massachussets. Rubbish heaps
Krigia virginica (L.) Willd.	1857	not recorded
Carex cephalophora Muhl. ex Willd.	1858	J. Blake
Carex vestita Willd.	1858	J. Blake	Ware
Castilleja coccinea (L.) Spreng.	1858	A. P. Chute
Celastrus scandens L.	1858	s.coll.
Ranunculus flabellaris Raf.	1858	A. P. Chute
Trifolium agrarium L.	1858	not recorded
Zizia aurea (L.) W.D.J.Koch	1859	A. P. Chute
Carex tribuloides Wahlenb.	1870	H. G. Jesup	Belchertown
Acer spicatum Lam.	1891	not recorded
Chimaphila umbellata (L.) W.P.C.Barton	1891	not recorded	Belchertown

All 1,099 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

7 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Palmer: 5 producers, 2 past producers. 5 still produce. 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.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
J J Raczka Sand and Gravel	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
J.J. Raczka Sand and Gravel Co. Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Lizak's Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Palmer Bituminous Corp	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Palmer Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Palmer Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Tobias Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Hampden County

Storms nearby

23 since 1999

The National Weather Service names Palmer in 23 storm reports between 1999 and 2024: 15 thunderstorm wind, 4 flood, 2 hail, 2 lightning. The reports record 1 injury. 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 2007	Lightning	Palmer	1 hurt	Lightning injured a person in Palmer. The injuries were reported to be minor.
May 2012	Lightning	Palmer	$165,000	Lightning struck the former Gales Newsstand building in Palmer at the corner of Main and Central Streets, setting the building on fire. The building was lost and the building next door was threatened but saved. No one was injured. Damage amount taken from the value of the building from the assessor's office.
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Palmer	$30,000	no account filed
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Palmer	$15,000	Trees and wires in the Bondsville section of town and on Stewert, Maple, and High Streets were downed by thunderstorm winds. One of these trees fell on a house on High Street.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Palmer	$10,000	Trees were downed by thunderstorm winds in at least four locations; including on Lathrop, Mill, and Central Streets.
February 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Palmer	$5,000	A tree in Palmer was downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Palmer	$5,000	Trees and wires on Mount Dumplin Road, Breton Street and Knox Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Palmer	$5,000	Trees and wires on Thompson and Park Streets were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Palmer	$5,000	no account filed
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Palmer	$3,000	A tree on Pine Street was downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Palmer	$3,000	A tree on Church Street was downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Palmer	$3,000	Trees were downed by thunderstorm winds.
November 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Palmer	$2,000	In Palmer at 958 PM, several trees were reported down across town.
July 2017	Flood	Palmer	$1,000	At 656 PM EST, an amateur radio operator reported U.S. Route 20 in Palmer was flooded with manhole covers popped off the road. At 705 PM EST, broadcast media reported flooding on Wilbraham Street, which is Route 20 west of town.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Palmer	$1,000	A large tree was downed by thunderstorm winds.
November 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Palmer	$500	In Monson, a tree was down on Hovey Road.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Palmer	$300	In Palmer, a tree was reported down on a house.
February 2016	Flood	Palmer	-	The underpass at Route 181 and Route 20 was flooded with 12 inches of water.
August 2016	Flood	Palmer	-	Thorndike Street or Route 32 was flooded both at the underpass with Interstate 90 and near the Big Y supermarket parking lot.
July 2015	Flood	Palmer	-	Route 20 was flooded at the train underpass near Route 181 with one and a half feet of water.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Palmer	-	Large limbs down on wires.
June 2000	Hail	Palmer	-	no account filed
July 1999	Hail	Palmer	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hampden 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Tenneyville	0.9 miles	35
Palmer Green Estates	1.0 miles	35
Meadowbrook Green	1.2 miles	35
Blanchardville	1.6 miles	35
Palmer Center	1.7 miles	35
Thorndike	2.0 miles	35
Four Corners	2.2 miles	35
Three Rivers	2.3 miles	35

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 Palmer	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7128206	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 609578. 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.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

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.