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Amherst, Wisconsin

6 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Amherst Village. It lies in ZIP code area 54406. It stands on Bear Creek. The Survey maps it on the Amherst quadrangle. 1,117 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,093 feet above sea level.

Amherst within Portage County

On record in Amherst

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

Population over time

2 figures

Amherst grew from 1,035 to 1,117 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
20101,035
20201,117+82 (+8%)

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

131 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 131 fires within 5 miles of Amherst between 1992 and 2020, burning about 222 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 3 were 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 burning34
Railroad operations and maintenance28
Equipment and vehicle use27
Missing data/not specified/undetermined16
Recreation and ceremony6
Fireworks5
Power generation/transmission/distribution5
Smoking4
Arson/incendiarism3
Natural1
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Other causes1

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
19 September 2009Fireworksunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesWARD ROAD FIRE
17 September 2018Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesTRAIN BRAKE FIRE
12 September 2012Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesSMOKEY RR FIRE #1
9 August 2013Debris and open burningunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesFOUNTAIN GROVE HOLDOVER
7 August 2012Equipment and vehicle use3.3 acresWisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesPAVELSKI BALER FIRE
5 August 2012Smoking2.1 acresWisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesHWY 10 WESTBOUND FIRE
3 August 2002Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
28 August 1998Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Portage County

Storms near this place

24 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Amherst in 24 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 12 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 3 heavy rain, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 1997Thunderstorm WindAmherst$1,000no account filed
June 2025Thunderstorm WindAmherst-Thunderstorm winds downed multiple trees, power poles, and power lines in Amherst. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data.
July 2023HailAmherst-Penny size hail fell in Amherst.
July 2019Thunderstorm WindAmherst-Thunderstorm winds downed trees, about 5 inches in diameter, near Amherst.
September 2018Thunderstorm WindAmherst-Thunderstorm winds downed trees in Amherst.
August 2018Thunderstorm WindAmherst-Thunderstorm winds knocked trees onto power lines near Amherst.
July 2016HailAmherst-Nickel size hail fell in the Amherst area.
August 2015Heavy RainAmherst-A spotter in Amherst measured more than 3 inches of rain since early morning, with more than 2.75 inches falling during the evening. The torrential rainfall caused a steet in Amherst to become impassable.
August 2014Thunderstorm WindAmherst-Thunderstorm winds downed trees in Amherst near County Road B.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindAmherst-Thunderstorm winds downed trees across southeast Portage County.
May 2011HailAmherst-Penny size hail fell in Amherst.
May 2011HailAmherst-Quarter size hail fell in Amherst.
July 2011Heavy RainAmherst-Five cars were unable to pass under a railroad bridge on Main Street in Amherst due to high water from heavy rainfall.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindAmherst-Thunderstorm winds downed trees in the town of Amherst.
March 2008Heavy RainAmherst-Heavy rain fell across most of Portage County. The highest precipitation totals were 1.40 inches near Amherst and 1.22 inches at Stevens Point.
May 2007Thunderstorm WindAmherst-A street sign was bent over by strong winds.
March 2007HailAmherst-no account filed
July 2005Thunderstorm WindAmherst-no account filed
August 2004HailAmherst-no account filed
August 2004Thunderstorm WindAmherst-no account filed
April 2003HailAmherst-no account filed
May 1999Funnel CloudAmherst-no account filed
March 1998HailAmherst-no account filed
August 1995Thunderstorm WindAmherst-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Portage 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
Amherst Junction1.9 miles6
Lake Emily (historical)3.2 miles6
Nelsonville3.3 miles6
New Hope3.8 miles7
Fancher5.4 miles6
Garfield7.7 miles7
Peru8.5 miles7
Custer8.6 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 AmherstAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2610159The 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 1560831. 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.