BlockBefore

Porcupine, Wisconsin

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1935 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Frankfort town. It lies in ZIP code area 54721. It lies near Patten Coulee. The Survey maps it on the Ella quadrangle. It stands 778 feet above sea level.

Porcupine within Pepin County

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 13 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

4 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Porcupine between 2018 and 2020, burning under an acre 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 burning2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2

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
4 May 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources27
21 April 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources20
20 April 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources26
12 November 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources56

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Pepin County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 12 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 12 workings within 5 miles of Porcupine: 8 occurrences, 4 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Arkansaw Sand Pit #1Sand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Arkansaw Sand Pit #2Sand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Arkansaw Shaly Limestone DepositStone, Crushed/BrokenOccurrence
Big Coulee Limestone DepositStone, Crushed/BrokenOccurrence
Emery Anderson QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
J. Dettling Limestone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Maple Ridge Limestone Deposit #1Stone, Crushed/BrokenOccurrence
Maple Ridge Limestone Deposit #2Stone, Crushed/BrokenOccurrence
Maple Ridge Sandstone DepositStone, Crushed/BrokenOccurrence
Porcupine Creek Dolomite DepositStone, Crushed/BrokenOccurrence

Every working recorded in Pepin County

Storms near this place

5 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Porcupine in 5 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 1996Thunderstorm WindPorcupine$4,500,000no account filed
July 2016Tornado (EF1)Porcupine$500,000A tornado was embedded within a broader mesocyclone that was sometimes three miles wide (see separate entry for the wind damage from the mesocyclone). The tornado itself moved east, hitting two farmsteads where barns and sheds were destroyed. The tornado also produced a narrow corridor of uprooted and snapped trees. It dissipated just as it was exiting Pepin County.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindPorcupine$200,000A mesocyclone that was sometimes three miles wide caused widespread wind damage, knocking down trees, destroying sheds and causing other building damage. The downburst wind damage from the mesocyclone was mostly spread across a 1.5 mile wide area, but occasionally reached a width of three miles. There was also a tornado embedded within the mesocyclone (see separate entry for the tornado).
July 2023Funnel CloudPorcupine-A funnel cloud was reported near Porcupine in Pepin County.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindPorcupine-There was a measured wind gust of 60 mph east of Porcupine from a private weather sensor.

Every storm recorded in Pepin 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
Ella4.1 miles13
Arkansaw4.9 miles13
Devils Corner5.5 miles13
Hawkins Corner5.9 miles13
Barry Corner6.4 miles13
Durand7.5 miles12
Laneville7.8 miles13
Pepin10.2 miles15

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 PorcupineAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7230015The 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 1571783. 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.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

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.