Amherst, South Dakota
6 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1979. It stands in Weston Township. It lies in ZIP code area 57421. The Survey maps it on the Amherst quadrangle.
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 6 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.
- 1953 USGS Milbank quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Amherst quadrangle1:24000
- 1958 USGS Milbank quadrangle1:250000
- 1979 USGS Sisseton quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
6 since 2011Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Amherst between 2011 and 2020, burning about 263 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 | 4 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
| Natural | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 July 2016 | Natural | 60 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | RENNIE TANK CPR |
| 17 June 2020 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 1.0 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | DITCH |
| 12 April 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | SUNSET COLONY |
| 25 November 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | TRASH BURN IN #17 |
| 10 November 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | RAYDIN OLSON BALE FIRE |
| 27 October 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | HOFER/JOHNSON |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
10 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Amherst in 10 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 5 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 tornado, 1 flash flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2025 | Flash Flood | Amherst | - | The Marshall county Emergency Manager reported street flooding in and around Britton. The CoCoRaHS observer 1 mile south southwest of Kidder recorded 3.31 inches of moisture. |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | Branches were reported down by thunderstorm winds west of Britton. |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | Winds in excess of 70 mph were measured at Sunset Colony. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | Several evergreens along with some power lines were blown down by eighty mph winds. |
| August 2025 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| July 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| May 2001 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Tornado (F3) | Amherst | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newport Colony | 4.1 miles | 6 | |
| West Britton | 5.8 miles | 7 | |
| Spain | 7.6 miles | 6 | |
| Britton | 9.8 miles | 7 | |
| Langford | 10.5 miles | 7 | |
| Westwood Colony | 12.6 miles | 7 | |
| Kidder | 14.9 miles | 7 | |
| Newark | 14.9 miles | 7 |
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 Amherst | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q4746002 | 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 1253644. 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.



