Bristol, South Dakota
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Bristol Township. It lies in ZIP code area 57219. The Survey maps it on the Bristol East quadrangle. 288 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,791 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBristol fell from 341 to 288 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 | 341 | |
| 2020 | 288 | -53 (-16%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 7 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 Milbank quadrangle1:250000
- 1973 USGS Bristol East quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Webster quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
3 since 2012Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Bristol between 2012 and 2017, burning about 30 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 May 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Day County | HANSMEIER |
| 31 March 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9.0 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | NA |
| 2 December 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | HORTER |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
36 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bristol in 36 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 20 hail, 14 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado. 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 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bristol | - | Estimated ninety mph winds destroyed a machine shed. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bristol | - | Seventy-five mph winds downed several trees and power lines in Bristol. |
| September 2019 | Tornado (EF1) | Bristol | - | The tornado touched down in a field west of 424th Ave, crossed the road and tracked along the northern edge of a farmstead 4 miles north of Bristol. Multiple broken tree branches were noted, with some tossed 50 to 80 yards from the original source. One fiberglass shed was destroyed and tossed about 70 yards. Another outbuilding was lifted off the foundation and set down about 30 yards away. The tornado continued east of the farmstead, crossing two small lakes. The track was clearly shown by cattails flattened in a convergent pattern. The tornado then struck another tree with limbs broken and tossed. The final evidence of the tornado was a downed deer stand. |
| September 2019 | Tornado (EF0) | Bristol | - | Witnesses observed a tornado. Additional evidence of the touchdown was an area of convergent pattern-flattened cattails. |
| August 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bristol | - | A sixty by eighty foot building was destroyed by eighty mph winds. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bristol | - | A road sign was bent over by nearly eighty mph winds. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bristol | - | Seventy mph winds damaged the canopy at a gas station. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bristol | - | Seventy mph winds or higher dented a grain bin and caused the structure to buckle pulling one edge out from the ground supports. There was also moderate damage to a gas station roof canopy. Much of the corn crop in the area was also completely stripped from large hail. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bristol | - | Numerous trees were downed in Bristol along with some homes sustaining damage with trees falling on them. |
| June 2009 | Hail | Bristol | - | Tennis ball size hail dented several vehicles and caused significant crop damage. |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bristol | - | High winds blew a semi trailer over onto a pickup at the Bristol Truck Stop. The pickup and the trailer were both damaged. Also, the high winds downed many tree branches in Bristol. |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bristol | - | Thunderstorm winds blew some large limbs down. |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bristol | - | Eighty mph winds knocked out the power in Bristol throughout the night. Also, several trees were downed. |
| August 2025 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| May 2018 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| July 2013 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| July 2012 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| May 2009 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| July 2007 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Hail | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bristol | - | no account filed |
| September 1995 | Hail | Bristol | - | 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 Bristol | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1861296 | 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 1254065. 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.



