Lake City, South Dakota
6 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1979. It stands in Lake Township. It lies in ZIP code area 57247. The Survey maps it on the Lake City quadrangle. 45 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,860 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresLake City fell from 51 to 45 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 | 51 | |
| 2020 | 45 | -6 (-12%) |
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
- 1970 USGS Lake City quadrangle1:24000
- 1979 USGS Sisseton quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
5 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Lake City between 1992 and 2016, burning about 712 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 | 4 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 April 1992 | Debris and open burning | 400 acres | Sisseton Agency | not named |
| 22 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 100 acres | Sisseton Agency | BUFFALO LAKE |
| 22 April 1997 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1.0 acres | Sisseton Agency | REDIRON1 |
| 19 April 2008 | Debris and open burning | 208 acres | Sisseton Agency | SOUTH RED IRON |
| 28 March 2016 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Sisseton Agency | RED IRON |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
60 of 70 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lake City in 70 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 37 thunderstorm wind, 28 hail, 3 tornado, 1 funnel cloud. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2025 | Flash Flood | Lake City | - | Marshall county emergency management reports at least 8 cases of water over the roadways across southern Marshall county. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | Emergency management reported crop damage due to thunderstorm winds. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | A resident estimated 70 mph thunderstorm wind gusts at their home. |
| June 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | A weather station from the South Dakota Department of Transportation measured a wind gust of 60 mph at Lake City. |
| August 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | A member of the public was contacted and they estimated the wind speed at 65 mph. |
| August 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | The individual reported an estimated peak thunderstorm wind speed of 60 mph. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | A trained spotter reported quarter size hail. |
| July 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | Several large branches were downed at Roy Lake by estimated 60 mph winds. |
| August 2020 | Tornado (EF0) | Lake City | - | A tornado touched down briefly on Roy Lake. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | Sixty mph winds were estimated. |
| July 2019 | Hail | Lake City | - | Quarter size hail broke through the skylight of a camper. |
| August 2019 | Tornado (EF0) | Lake City | - | A tornado developed over Roy Lake and came onshore on the southeast side of the lake. The tornado flipped over a pontoon, broke several tree branches, and split a couple trees. It then caused minor damage to an outbuilding before producing extensive tree damage on the south side of a golf course. One piece of lawn furniture was found in a tree over 150 yards away from the original location. Large tree branches were also tossed over 60 yards across fairways on the golf course. In addition to the tornado damage, straight line winds tipped over a camper and caused tree damage in other locations in and around the golf course. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | Sixty mph winds were estimated. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | A large tree was downed by seventy mph winds. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | Several trees and many large branches were downed by the high winds. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | Sixty mph winds blew a small trailer over which damaged some siding and fencing. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | A medium sized tree was snapped off along with a metal roof blown off of a building. |
| August 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | Several trees were downed at Roy Lake State Park. |
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | Winds of 90 mph or higher uprooted many trees from Roy Lake to Clear Lake south of Lake City and also swept away and damaged many docks, boat lifts, and boats. |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | High winds brought down a large oak tree at Roy Lake along with many tree branches. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | At a farm near Clear Lake, winds gusting to 70 mph blew in some windows on the house, damaged the barn, and blew down a big cottonwood tree. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| September 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| October 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2011 | Funnel Cloud | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake City | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Hail | Lake City | - | 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.
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 Lake City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2746946 | 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 1256013. 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.



