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Prairie City, South Dakota

6 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Strool-Plateau Township. It lies in ZIP code area 57649. The Survey maps it on the Prairie City quadrangle. 25 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,841 feet above sea level.

Prairie City within Perkins County

Population over time

2 figures

Prairie City grew from 23 to 25 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
201023
202025+2 (+9%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 6 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

22 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 22 fires within 5 miles of Prairie City between 2001 and 2017, burning about 472 acres in total. 9 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
Natural9
Equipment and vehicle use7
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Smoking1
Debris and open burning1

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
16 September 2015Natural50 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionBECKMAN
13 September 2017Natural1.0 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionDATE
3 August 2006Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire Suppressionnot named
27 August 2014Missing data/not specified/undetermined20 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionHUSMAN WHEAT STUBBLE
24 August 2015Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionHAINE-CARR
20 August 2017Naturalunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionSCHECHER
10 August 2017Naturalunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionKOPREN
9 July 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionSTEUER PLACE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Perkins County

Storms near this place

41 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Prairie City in 41 storm reports between 2000 and 2025: 24 hail, 14 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood, 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
June 2008FloodPrairie City$500,000Record flooding was reported along the Moreau River northwest of Faith. Highway 20 west of Bison and Bixby, Cedar Canyon, and Zeona Roads in southern Perkins County were covered by water.
July 2013HailPrairie City$25,000no account filed
September 2013Thunderstorm WindPrairie City$5,000The combination of wind and hail caused minor damage.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindPrairie City$5,000Large hail accompanied the strong wind gusts.
July 2011Flash FloodPrairie City$5,000Brushy Creek and other small creeks flooded portions of southern Perkins County. Gravel and debris washed over the Moreau River Road 13 miles east of Zeona.
June 2025HailPrairie City-Public reported large hail, estimated.
June 2019Thunderstorm WindPrairie City-The public reported wind gusts around 60 mph.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindPrairie City-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
September 2013Thunderstorm WindPrairie City-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
July 2012Thunderstorm WindPrairie City-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindPrairie City-A spotter estimated wind gusts of 60 mph.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindPrairie City-Estimated wind gusts of 60 mph.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindPrairie City-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
August 2010Thunderstorm WindPrairie City-Wind gusts to 60 mph were reported in Prairie City.
August 2006HailPrairie City-Ground covered with hail.
August 2006HailPrairie City-Ground covered with hail.
July 2021HailPrairie City-no account filed
July 2020HailPrairie City-no account filed
July 2020Funnel CloudPrairie City-no account filed
June 2020HailPrairie City-no account filed
June 2019HailPrairie City-no account filed
June 2016HailPrairie City-no account filed
August 2016HailPrairie City-no account filed
July 2016HailPrairie City-no account filed
August 2014HailPrairie City-no account filed
September 2013HailPrairie City-no account filed
September 2013HailPrairie City-no account filed
September 2013HailPrairie City-no account filed
July 2011HailPrairie City-no account filed
July 2011HailPrairie City-no account filed
June 2010HailPrairie City-no account filed
August 2007Thunderstorm WindPrairie City-no account filed
July 2007HailPrairie City-no account filed
June 2006Thunderstorm WindPrairie City-no account filed
August 2006HailPrairie City-no account filed
September 2005HailPrairie City-no account filed
August 2003HailPrairie City-no account filed
August 2002Thunderstorm WindPrairie City-no account filed
August 2002Thunderstorm WindPrairie City-no account filed
June 2001HailPrairie City-no account filed
June 2000HailPrairie City-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Perkins 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
Strool2.0 miles6
Sorum8.6 miles7
Date13.0 miles7
Bison18.2 miles7
Lodgepole20.4 miles7
Ellingson (historical)23.5 miles7
Zeona23.9 miles7
Imogene27.3 miles7

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 Prairie CityAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q4257706The 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 1257197. 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.