Wessington, South Dakota
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1950 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Wessington City. It lies in ZIP code area 57381. The Survey maps it on the Wessington quadrangle. 197 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,417 feet above sea level.
On record in Wessington
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
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 9 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.
- 1950 USGS Wessington quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1953 USGS Huron quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1954 USGS Huron quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Huron quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
9 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 9 fires within 5 miles of Wessington between 1998 and 2011, burning about 64 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Natural | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | WESSINGTON ELEVATOR |
| 28 July 2002 | Natural | 5.0 acres | Wessington Volunteer Fire Department | JACK LEGRAND |
| 27 July 2002 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wessington Volunteer Fire Department | TIMMERMAN |
| 15 July 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | not named |
| 8 June 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 15 acres | Wessington Volunteer Fire Department | DM&E RAILROAD |
| 29 June 2002 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Wessington Volunteer Fire Department | JOHN GULLY |
| 1 May 2002 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Wessington Volunteer Fire Department | ROGERS BROS. |
| 14 December 1998 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Columbia Volunteer Fire Department | C.SCHAUNAMAN |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
47 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wessington in 47 storm reports between 1994 and 2022: 32 hail, 11 thunderstorm wind, 2 heavy rain, 1 tornado. The reports record 2 injuries. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2006 | Tornado (F3) | Wessington | 2 hurt, $15,000,000 | A tornado, entering Beadle County from Hand County to the west, destroyed 8 houses, damaged at least 7 other houses, and destroyed or damaged numerous farm buildings. One of the destroyed houses and several destroyed small buildings were on a farmstead 2 miles south of Wessington, and five large high voltage transmission towers were blown down about 3 miles southeast of Wessington. A woman was cut on the neck at one farm southwest of Wolsey where the house and all other buildings were destroyed; the injury was not life threatening. The tornado tossed a car and 2 pickups up to 50 feet at the same farm. Another non life threatening injury occurred southeast of Wolsey, again on a farm where the house and all buildings were destroyed. Several vehicles were destroyed or damaged. The tornado killed 10 head of cattle at one farmstead just south of Wolsey. The tornado snapped off numerous power poles, caused widespread tree damage, and severely damaged a bridge where it crossed U.S. Highway 14. The tornado also caused crop damage, but the amount of crop damage was not known. The tornado dissipated one and a half miles southwest of Huron. |
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wessington | $100,000 | Thunderstorm winds blew the roof off a storage building at a business, blew down power lines, destroyed a machine shed on a farm, damaged farm equipment inside the shed, and caused widespread tree damage. The tree damage affected about 15 percent of the trees in the town of Wessington. |
| August 2019 | Hail | Wessington | $3,000 | A car was dented by falling and blowing hail. |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wessington | $2,000 | Thunderstorm winds destroyed two outbuildings and caused tree damage. |
| April 2022 | Hail | Wessington | - | While mostly small hail fell, some hailstones were up to 2 inches in diameter. Rainfall totaled around one inch. |
| July 2021 | Hail | Wessington | - | Hail was mostly pea size, but there were a few stones up to ping-pong ball size. |
| June 2020 | Hail | Wessington | - | Hail was reported to vary between pea and quarter size. |
| July 2017 | Hail | Wessington | - | Also wind gusts to 60 mph were estimated that caused a few tree branches to be down. |
| July 2016 | Heavy Rain | Wessington | - | Rainfall of 2.10 inches was measured. |
| July 2016 | Heavy Rain | Wessington | - | Rainfall of 3.50 inches was measured. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wessington | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several branches blown down. |
| June 2010 | Hail | Wessington | - | Large hail covered the ground. Crop damage was suspected, but the amount of crop damage was not known. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wessington | - | Thunderstorm winds damaged trees and outbuildings. |
| June 2008 | Flash Flood | Wessington | - | Heavy rain caused flooding of roads. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Wessington | - | Large hail damaged winter wheat crops in the area. The amount of crop damage was not known. |
| May 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wessington | - | Thunderstorm winds tipped over calf shelters. The winds also caused tree damage, including several large trees blown down. |
| June 2006 | Hail | Wessington | - | Large hail dented vehicles. The amount of damage was not known. |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wessington | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts to 60 mph were accompanied by pea size hail and over 2 inches of rain. |
| June 2005 | Hail | Wessington | - | Large hail was accompanied by winds gusting to near 50 mph. |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wessington | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree and power line damage, resulting in a power outage. |
| June 1994 | Hail | Wessington | - | A barn was destroyed and a hog feeder was damaged. |
| April 2022 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| June 2022 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| April 2022 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| August 2019 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| August 2018 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| July 2017 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| July 2016 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| July 2016 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| June 2015 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| July 2009 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| July 2009 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Hail | Wessington | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Hail | Wessington | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wolsey | 12.2 miles | 9 | |
| Bonilla | 13.7 miles | 10 | |
| Virgil | 18.3 miles | 9 | |
| Broadland | 18.6 miles | 9 | |
| Hitchcock | 19.5 miles | 10 | |
| James Valley Junction | 21.9 miles | 9 | |
| Huron | 26.3 miles | 10 | |
| Huron Colony | 27.1 miles | 11 |
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 Wessington | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2086888 | 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 1267671. 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.



