White Owl, South Dakota

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Belle Fourche-Cheyenne Valleys unorganized territory. It lies in ZIP code area 57792. The Survey maps it on the White Owl quadrangle. It stands 2,792 feet above sea level.

White Owl within Meade County

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 7 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.

1953 USGS Rapid City quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1957 USGS Rapid City quadrangle1:250000
1983 USGS Whiteman Owl quadrangle1:24000
1984 USGS Camp Creek quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

Fires near this place

9 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 9 fires within 5 miles of White Owl between 1999 and 2018, burning about 22,180 acres in total. 4 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
Natural	4
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Debris and open burning	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
25 September 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	SHAW RANCH FIRE
3 August 2006	Natural	21,314 acres	Montana/Dakotas State Office	WHITE OWL
11 August 2000	Natural	10 acres	Enning Volunteer Fire Department	GRANT SIMONS
3 July 2008	Equipment and vehicle use	2.0 acres	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	not named
27 July 2011	Equipment and vehicle use	2.0 acres	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	KING
25 July 2012	Natural	2.0 acres	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	BUDDY SIMMON
18 July 2016	Equipment and vehicle use	50 acres	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	SIMONS COMBINE
29 June 2000	Natural	500 acres	Enning Volunteer Fire Department	JACK SIMONS

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Meade County

Storms near this place

30 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names White Owl in 30 storm reports between 1997 and 2020: 14 hail, 14 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	White Owl	$1,000	Strong winds blew over a small shed and tossed it into some nearby trees.
May 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	White Owl	-	The strong winds tore the roof off a barn and uprooted several trees.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	White Owl	-	A lot of tree limbs were blown down by the wind.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	White Owl	-	Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
March 2019	Flood	White Owl	-	The peak gage height at the Cheyenne River at Wasta reached a preliminary height of 13.98 feet.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	White Owl	-	Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	White Owl	-	The spotter estimated wind gusts at around 60 mph.
July 2016	Tornado (EF1)	White Owl	-	A short-lived EF-1 tornado developed about seven miles south-southeast of White Owl, knocking down trees and power lines it its path. Wind gusts were estimated at 110 mph.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	White Owl	-	Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	White Owl	-	The spotters noted strong winds early in the morning.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	White Owl	-	Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
August 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	White Owl	-	A spotter estimated wind gusts at 60 mph.
June 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	White Owl	-	Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
April 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	White Owl	-	Estimated wind gusts were 60 mph.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	White Owl	-	Wind speeds were estimated at 60 mph.
April 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	White Owl	-	Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
May 2020	Hail	White Owl	-	no account filed
June 2014	Hail	White Owl	-	no account filed
May 2010	Hail	White Owl	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	White Owl	-	no account filed
May 2007	Hail	White Owl	-	no account filed
June 2007	Hail	White Owl	-	no account filed
July 2007	Hail	White Owl	-	no account filed
July 2007	Hail	White Owl	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	White Owl	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	White Owl	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	White Owl	-	no account filed
June 2000	Hail	White Owl	-	no account filed
July 2000	Hail	White Owl	-	no account filed
October 1997	Hail	White Owl	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Meade 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Enning	7.1 miles	8
Marcus	9.5 miles	7
Redowl	9.8 miles	7
Boneita Springs	12.3 miles	7
Union Center	12.8 miles	7
Plainview	14.3 miles	7
Stoneville	15.4 miles	7
Dalzell	17.2 miles	7

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 White Owl	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7995165	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 1258970. 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.