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Chester, South Dakota

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Chester Township. It lies in ZIP code area 57016. The Survey maps it on the Wentworth quadrangle. 257 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,601 feet above sea level.

Chester within Lake County

Population over time

2 figures

Chester fell from 261 to 257 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
2010261
2020257-4 (-2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 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

12 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Chester between 1999 and 2015, burning about 162 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/undetermined8
Recreation and ceremony1
Equipment and vehicle use1
Fireworks1
Debris and open burning1

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
6 July 2001Fireworks2.0 acresVermillion Volunteer Fire DepartmentNISSEN
13 July 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.5 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire Suppressionnot named
10 May 2014Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionCAVINESS
1 May 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionGASPER FIRE
10 April 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionJOHNSON
31 March 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionGASPER
31 March 2000Equipment and vehicle use150 acresColman Volunteer Fire DepartmentMALVY CHRISTENSON
30 March 1999Debris and open burningunder an acreArlington Volunteer Fire DepartmentMARK MANSON

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Lake County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Chester: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. 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.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Lake County

Storms near this place

25 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Chester in 25 storm reports between 1996 and 2019: 11 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 3 flood, 1 lightning. 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
April 2002HailChester$50,000Large hail damaged vehicles, roofs, and trees.
June 2003Thunderstorm WindChester$20,000Thunderstorm winds tore the roof off a hog confinement building and blew over a semi truck.
July 2000HailChester$10,000Large hail caused damage to vehicles and crops, but the amount of crop damage was not known.
September 2019FloodChester$5,000After excessive two-day rainfall during September 10-12 (record 2-day 8.52 inches 2 miles north of Chester), Skunk Creek near Chester (gage site SCCS2) reached the second highest stage on record of 0.33 feet above flood stage on September 12. Significant amounts of agricultural land were inundated.
October 1997Thunderstorm WindChester$5,000no account filed
May 1996LightningChester$1,000no account filed
March 2019FloodChester-Snow melt and heavy rainfall (measured 2.01 inches 2 miles north of Chester) resulted in extensive flooding of agricultural land in the flood plain. Skunk Creek near Chester (gage site SCCS2) reached the second highest crest on record at 0.2 feet above flood stage on March 18.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindChester-Large limb was broken off a cottonwood tree.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindChester-A large tree limb was broken off in a shelter belt.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindChester-Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including a few trees blown down.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindChester-Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including up to 6 inch diameter branches blown down.
June 2008FloodChester-Heavy rain during the course of the day caused flooding of a few roads in the Chester area.
September 2006Tornado (F0)Chester-A tornado that caused F1 damage in Minnehaha County crossed over a small corner of southeast Lake County before crossing into Moody County, affecting 3 counties during its 3 minute existence. No damage was reported in Lake County.
July 2004Thunderstorm WindChester-Thunderstorm winds blew down power lines, uprooted large trees, and caused other tree damage. The amount of damage was not known.
May 2012HailChester-no account filed
June 2012HailChester-no account filed
September 2006HailChester-no account filed
September 2006HailChester-no account filed
April 2004HailChester-no account filed
April 2004HailChester-no account filed
August 2004Thunderstorm WindChester-no account filed
May 2002HailChester-no account filed
April 2002HailChester-no account filed
August 2001HailChester-no account filed
August 1998Thunderstorm WindChester-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lake 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
Brant Lake2.7 miles7
Smiths Park4.6 miles7
Peninsula Park5.6 miles6
Wentworth7.3 miles7
Franklin7.6 miles6
Rustic Acres Colony8.9 miles6
Chautauqua9.2 miles6
Madison12.6 miles9

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 ChesterAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3709565The 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 1254346. 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.

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.