Hazel, South Dakota
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Brantford Township. It lies in ZIP code area 57242. The Survey maps it on the Hazel quadrangle. 102 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,765 feet above sea level.
On record in Hazel
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 1 record
- First State Bank of Hazellisted 1997
Population over time
2 figuresHazel grew from 91 to 102 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 | 91 | |
| 2020 | 102 | +11 (+12%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 8 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 Watertown quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1973 USGS Hazel quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
10 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 10 fires within 5 miles of Hazel between 2000 and 2013, burning about 176 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 July 2000 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Hazel Volunteer Fire Department | RURAL HAZEL |
| 21 May 2002 | Debris and open burning | 60 acres | Hazel Volunteer Fire Department | LAKNESS |
| 6 April 2000 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Hazel Volunteer Fire Department | GROVER |
| 5 April 2000 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Hazel Volunteer Fire Department | HAZEL DUMP |
| 29 March 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Hazel Volunteer Fire Department | BNSF RIGHT OF WAY |
| 29 March 2000 | Debris and open burning | 80 acres | Hazel Volunteer Fire Department | BRYCE |
| 27 March 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Hazel Volunteer Fire Department | BRANTFORD |
| 13 November 2007 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
42 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Hazel in 42 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 25 hail, 8 flood, 4 tornado, 3 thunderstorm wind. The reports record 1 injury. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2022 | Tornado (EF1) | Hazel | 1 hurt | The residents were outside when they saw the tornado quickly develop and were forced to seek shelter under a tractor. The tornado ripped the entire roof off of a newly built machine shed and also damaged the exterior walls. Debris was spread to the north, with sheet metal and pieces of rafters lofted into nearby trees. The tornado continued to track north northwest about a half mile. The tops of trees were snapped off in one shelterbelt and a clear path was evident in a second shelterbelt. |
| April 2011 | Flood | Hazel | $800,000 | Snowmelt flooding damaged many roads and highways, including U.S. Highway 81, throughout Hamlin County. Many roads were closed throughout the county. In the late evening of April 13th on U.S Highway 81, a car with four people inside went through a flooded area at a high rate of speed and ended up in the flooded ditch. They all got out with no injuries. |
| April 2019 | Flood | Hazel | $201,900 | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Flash Flood | Hazel | $50,000 | Many township roads were flooded throughout Hamlin county with several of the roads being washed out. |
| August 2025 | Tornado (EF0) | Hazel | - | A tornado touched down over cropland just east of 439th Ave and about a half-mile south of 183rd St. The tornado tracked northeast, crossing 183rd St. Tree damage was noted just before the tornado then crossed 440th Ave. The tornado crossed a farmstead where several empty grain bins were detached from their foundations and destroyed. The last evidence of the tornado was in a crop field roughly a half mile north of this farm and less than a mile southwest of the town of Hazel. |
| April 2023 | Flood | Hazel | - | A few roads, including County Road 465 north of Estelline, had water across the roadway from overland flooding. |
| March 2019 | Flood | Hazel | - | Snowmelt flooded several roads throughout Hamlin county especially along the Big Sioux River. |
| June 2014 | Flash Flood | Hazel | - | Very heavy rains of 3 to 4 inches had resulted in full ditches, culverts running full, along with several roads and a county highway being overtopped. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hazel | - | Many trees were downed in Hazel. |
| March 2011 | Flood | Hazel | - | Snowmelt water caused the biggest issues for the people of Hamlin county with rising lake levels along with many roads, crop and pastureland flooded. The rising level on Lake Poinsett would eventually cause the most damage in the county in April. See storm data entry on April Hamlin county lakeshore flooding. |
| July 2010 | Hail | Hazel | - | A supercell thunderstorm entered western Hamlin county and tracked southeast producing quarter to baseball size hail along with damaging winds in excess of 70 mph. The large hail and strong winds caused extensive damage to homes, outbuildings, vehicles, and especially crops. Thousands of acres of corn, soybeans, and wheat were damaged or destroyed across Hamlin county. Also, many trees and gardens were damaged by the hail and high winds. |
| May 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hazel | - | High winds downed a few trees west of Hazel and also blew the door off a building. |
| June 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Hazel | - | A tornado touched down briefly northwest of Hazel. No damage occurred. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hazel | - | Winds gusting to 80 mph snapped off several trees, blew a garage down, and brought power lines down in Hazel. |
| July 2025 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| June 2024 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| June 2019 | Flood | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| May 2019 | Flood | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| July 2018 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| July 2017 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| July 2016 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| May 2015 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| May 2015 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| August 2015 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| September 2013 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| March 2010 | Flood | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| September 1997 | Hail | Hazel | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Tornado (F0) | Hazel | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas | 9.0 miles | 8 | |
| Hayti | 11.6 miles | 8 | |
| Bryant | 12.6 miles | 8 | |
| Kones Corner | 14.5 miles | 8 | |
| Lake Norden | 15.3 miles | 8 | |
| Alsville | 17.9 miles | 8 | |
| Castlewood | 18.7 miles | 8 | |
| Stone Bridge | 20.1 miles | 8 |
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 Hazel | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2672108 | 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 1255492. 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.



