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Kennebec, South Dakota

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Kennebec town. It lies in ZIP code area 57544. The Survey maps it on the Kennebec quadrangle. 281 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,686 feet above sea level.

Kennebec within Lyman County

Population over time

2 figures

Kennebec grew from 240 to 281 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
2010240
2020281+41 (+17%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 8 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

31 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 31 fires within 5 miles of Kennebec between 2001 and 2020, burning about 723 acres in total. 1 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
Equipment and vehicle use15
Missing data/not specified/undetermined14
Recreation and ceremony1
Natural1

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
7 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionSTINGER FIRE
27 September 2015Natural45 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionSTUMPHOLE FIRE
27 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionBRAKKE DAM FIRE
24 September 2019Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionI 90 231
5 August 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire Suppressionnot named
21 August 2005Recreation and ceremony5.0 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire Suppressionnot named
19 August 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionJOHNSON GRASS
18 August 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionWYATT SCHELSKI FIRE

Every fire recorded in Lyman County

Storms near this place

60 of 82 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Kennebec in 82 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 39 hail, 38 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 1 flash flood. 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 2025HailKennebec-Hail measuring 1.25 inches in diameter was reported in the town of Kennebec.
June 2023HailKennebec-Estimated quarter to half dollar sized hail damaged crops. The timing of the hail was estimated by radar.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindKennebec-Estimated sixty mph winds ripped some of the vinyl siding off of a house.
July 2017Thunderstorm WindKennebec-Seventy mph winds were estimated.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindKennebec-Seventy mph winds were estimated.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindKennebec-Eighty mph winds caused damage to shingles on the roof.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindKennebec-Many large tree branches were downed by seventy mph winds.
July 2015Thunderstorm WindKennebec-Sixty mph winds were estimated.
July 2012Thunderstorm WindKennebec-Sixty mph winds were estimated by the public.
August 2011Thunderstorm WindKennebec-Eighty mph winds took shingles off the house and also damaged the deck. A barn was also destroyed with a horse being injured. Many tree branches were also downed.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindKennebec-Seventy mph winds tipped over a camper and downed many tree branches.
May 2010Thunderstorm WindKennebec-Sixty mph winds were estimated north of Kennebec.
July 2010Thunderstorm WindKennebec-Seventy mph winds tore a garage door loose, bent a flagpole over, and downed many large tree branches in Kennebec. The winds also caused some damage to homes, sheds, and grain bins in Kennebec.
August 2009HailKennebec-Golfball size hail combined with strong winds broke many windows in the house and dented several vehicles. The house pet was also injured.
August 2007Funnel CloudKennebec-A storm chaser spotted a well-defined funnel cloud from a supercell thunderstorm.
June 2003Tornado (F0)Kennebec-A tornado touched down briefly north of Kennebec causing no damage.
June 2003Tornado (F0)Kennebec-A tornado touched down briefly north of Kennebec causing no damage.
July 2002Thunderstorm WindKennebec-Sixty mph winds dislodged a piece of tin from the roof of a barn, knocked a barn door off of its hinges, and downed some large tree branches.
May 1999Flash FloodKennebec-Heavy rains of 2 to 5 inches fell in Lyman county during the late evening hours which caused flash flooding on Medicine Creek. The KOA Campgrounds near Kennebec were flooded including the main facility. Several roads were also flooded and damaged along Medicine Creek.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
June 2025HailKennebec-no account filed
July 2025Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
August 2025Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
July 2024Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
August 2023Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
August 2023Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
July 2023HailKennebec-no account filed
June 2022Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
June 2022Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
July 2022Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
May 2021Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
July 2021Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
August 2019HailKennebec-no account filed
June 2018HailKennebec-no account filed
June 2018HailKennebec-no account filed
August 2018HailKennebec-no account filed
September 2016HailKennebec-no account filed
September 2015HailKennebec-no account filed
August 2013HailKennebec-no account filed
July 2012HailKennebec-no account filed
July 2012HailKennebec-no account filed
May 2012HailKennebec-no account filed
May 2012HailKennebec-no account filed
July 2011HailKennebec-no account filed
September 2010HailKennebec-no account filed
September 2010HailKennebec-no account filed
May 2010HailKennebec-no account filed
July 2010HailKennebec-no account filed
August 2010Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
August 2009Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
August 2009HailKennebec-no account filed
May 2008HailKennebec-no account filed
June 2005Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
September 2005HailKennebec-no account filed
May 2004Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
May 2004HailKennebec-no account filed
July 2004Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
August 2004Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
July 2003Thunderstorm WindKennebec-no account filed
June 2003HailKennebec-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lyman 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
Lyman6.7 miles8
Presho10.4 miles6
Reliance13.8 miles8
Council House18.8 miles8
Lower Brule19.2 miles8
Vivian22.9 miles6
Oacoma25.8 miles11
Iona34.0 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 KennebecAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2408990The 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 1265266. 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.