BlockHammer, South Dakota
6 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1979. It stands in Minnesota Township. It lies in ZIP code area 57255. The Survey maps it on the Claire City 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 Milbank quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS Claire City quadrangle1:24000
- 1979 USGS Sisseton quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
3 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Hammer between 1999 and 2015, burning about 299 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 | 2 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 November 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | MEDENWALD |
| 17 November 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8.7 acres | Waubay Wetland Management District | HARSTED-ELTON |
| 21 October 1999 | Debris and open burning | 240 acres | South Shore Volunteer Fire Department | WOHLLEBER |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
4 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Hammer in 4 storm reports between 2007 and 2025: 1 hail, 1 tornado, 1 flash flood, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hammer | - | The caller stated that their calf shelters were thrown into the fence by estimated 65 mph wind gusts. |
| June 2018 | Tornado (EF0) | Hammer | - | A tornado touched down briefly southeast of Claire City with no damage occurring. |
| June 2018 | Flash Flood | Hammer | - | Heavy rains of 2 to 4 inches brought flash flooding in and to the east and southeast of Claire City. Several roads were flooded along with several basements in Claire City. |
| June 2007 | Hail | Hammer | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claire City | 4.4 miles | 6 | |
| New Effington | 5.3 miles | 9 | |
| Dahlberg | 8.7 miles | 6 | |
| Victor | 10.0 miles | 9 | |
| Sisseton | 13.2 miles | 6 | |
| Long Hollow Housing | 13.5 miles | 6 | |
| Valley View Estates | 14.9 miles | 6 | |
| Rosholt | 15.4 miles | 14 |
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 Hammer | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q23709363 | 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 1255409. 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.