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Groton, South Dakota

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1895 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Groton City. It lies in ZIP code area 57445. The Survey maps it on the Groton quadrangle. 1,380 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,302 feet above sea level.

Groton within Brown County

On record in Groton

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 4 records

Population over time

2 figures

Groton fell from 1,458 to 1,380 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
20101,458
20201,380-78 (-5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 11 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

19 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 19 fires within 5 miles of Groton between 2000 and 2017, burning about 177 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/undetermined12
Debris and open burning4
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
27 September 2012Missing data/not specified/undetermined45 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionBELDEN
14 September 2000Debris and open burning20 acresGroton Volunteer Fire DepartmentGROTON CITY
18 August 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionOVERPASS
30 June 2000Railroad operations and maintenance2.0 acresGroton Volunteer Fire DepartmentBURLINGTON NORTHERN RR
7 May 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined15 acresDay CountyRAAP
4 May 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionFLIEHS FIRE
3 May 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined50 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionZOELLNER FIRE
18 May 2012Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionUNKNOW

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Brown County

Storms near this place

54 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Groton in 54 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 29 thunderstorm wind, 19 hail, 4 tornado, 1 wildfire. 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
August 1993HailGroton$50A severe thunderstorm hit Groton with hail, damaging lightning, and 3.43 inches of rain which flooded some basements. At a high school, lightning split a 30-foot chimney which fell through a large skylight and sections of the roof. This resulted in extensive water damage to ceiling tiles in classrooms, due to the heavy rains.
August 2025Thunderstorm WindGroton-A trained spotter reported that hay bales had rolled across highway 12 due to thunderstorm winds.
August 2025Thunderstorm WindGroton-Public reported tree damage by estimated thunderstorm winds around 60 mph.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindGroton-Estimated eighty mph winds caused several power poles to lean over or break off south of Groton. There were also several downed trees.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindGroton-Estimated seventy-five mph winds downed several trees in Groton along with damaging an apartment building.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindGroton-Seventy mph winds were estimated.
June 2017Tornado (EF0)Groton-A tornado touched down briefly south of Groton. No damage occurred.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindGroton-The sheet metal was blown off a roof at a business south of Groton by estimated seventy mph winds.
August 2016Thunderstorm WindGroton-Sixty-five mph winds downed many tree branches along with some trees in Groton.
August 2016Thunderstorm WindGroton-Building removed from foundation and moved to the east.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindGroton-Sixty mph winds tossed around three square water tanks with one tank tossed a hundred feet. A small piece of sheet metal was also blown off the roof of a building along with some minor tree damage.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindGroton-Sixty mph winds downed several tree branches along a tree row with a few branches thrown east across the road into a corn field. The corn stocks were leaning 45 degrees to the east.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindGroton-A large tree was broke off at the trunk along with another tree partially uprooted. Many other large branches were downed in the shelter belt with minor damage to the edge of the cornfield.
July 2015Thunderstorm WindGroton-Seventy mph winds downed a large pine tree with many other tree branches downed.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindGroton-Sixty mph winds were estimated in Groton.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindGroton-An anchored single wide manufactured home was blown completely off of its foundation and destroyed. Some of the debris was blown 60 feet into another home causing damage to it.
May 2007Thunderstorm WindGroton-Thunderstorm winds over 70 mph downed several evergreen trees at the cemetary and also downed a flag pole.
June 2005Tornado (F0)Groton-A tornado touched down west of Groton and did some damage to three mobile homes.
June 2003Thunderstorm WindGroton-Sixty mph winds knocked down some large tree branches.
July 2002Thunderstorm WindGroton-Sixty mph winds blew off some large advertising signs at the ball field.
July 2002Thunderstorm WindGroton-Winds to 80 mph brought down many trees in the Groton cemetery. Some power poles along with many tree branches were also downed in Groton.
June 2000Thunderstorm WindGroton-Seventy mph winds blew the roof off of an outbuilding and caved one wall in. After the roof hit the ground, it was torn to pieces. The pieces were spread out across a field in a narrow straight path. A piece of the roof also injured a cow.
July 2000Thunderstorm WindGroton-Winds to 70 mph destroyed a cattle shelter and broke a window out of the house.
July 2000Thunderstorm WindGroton-High winds buckled the walls of a mobile home south of Groton.
June 1999Thunderstorm WindGroton-Winds gusting to 74 mph knocked down several trees and many tree branches throughout Groton. One tree took out a major transmission line and ripped the electrical service line off of a house. Power was out for parts of Groton for several hours. The high winds shattered the windows at a store on Main street and tore a standing board on a sign loose which damaged five new vehicles at a dealership in Groton. The high winds also destroyed a small service building and the surrounding fence at a main juncture of natural gas pipelines at Groton.
June 1998Tornado (F0)Groton-A tornado touched down briefly southeast of Groton with no damage reported. Path length and width were estimated.
July 2024HailGroton-no account filed
April 2023Thunderstorm WindGroton-no account filed
September 2023HailGroton-no account filed
August 2022HailGroton-no account filed
May 2022Thunderstorm WindGroton-no account filed
July 2016Funnel CloudGroton-no account filed
July 2013HailGroton-no account filed
July 2013HailGroton-no account filed
July 2013HailGroton-no account filed
July 2010HailGroton-no account filed
May 2010HailGroton-no account filed
April 2009HailGroton-no account filed
June 2009HailGroton-no account filed
June 2009HailGroton-no account filed
June 2009HailGroton-no account filed
June 2009HailGroton-no account filed
June 2005HailGroton-no account filed
June 2005HailGroton-no account filed
June 2005Thunderstorm WindGroton-no account filed
July 2003Thunderstorm WindGroton-no account filed
July 2003Thunderstorm WindGroton-no account filed
August 2002HailGroton-no account filed
October 1999WildfireGroton-no account filed
July 1999Thunderstorm WindGroton-no account filed
June 1998HailGroton-no account filed
August 1997Thunderstorm WindGroton-no account filed
July 1996HailGroton-no account filed
July 1996Tornado (F0)Groton-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Brown 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
James6.2 miles11
Ferney8.1 miles10
Putney8.8 miles9
Tacoma Park10.3 miles9
Huffton11.7 miles9
Bath12.0 miles11
Plana12.2 miles10
Bath Corner12.3 miles11

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 GrotonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3245483The 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 1255377. 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.