Atwood, Colorado
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1951 and the latest in 1983. It stands in the Merino census division. It lies in ZIP code area 80722. The Survey maps it on the Atwood quadrangle. 138 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,993 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresAtwood grew from 133 to 138 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 133 | |
| 2020 | 138 | +5 (+4%) |
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.
- 1951 USGS Atwood quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1954 USGS Sterling quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Sterling quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Sterling quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
57 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 57 fires within 5 miles of Atwood between 2006 and 2020, burning about 3,314 acres in total. 3 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 35 |
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 5 |
| Natural | 3 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 September 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 35 acres | Sterling Fire Rescue | UNKNOWN |
| 21 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Sterling Fire Rescue | N/A |
| 14 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Sterling Fire Rescue | UNKNOWN |
| 9 August 2018 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Merino Fire Department | UNKNOWN |
| 31 August 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | Sterling Fire Rescue | UNKNOWN |
| 30 August 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Merino Fire Department | UNKNOWN |
| 7 July 2013 | Natural | under an acre | Sterling Fire Rescue | UNKNOWN |
| 4 July 2016 | Fireworks | under an acre | Sterling Fire Rescue | UNKNOWN |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Atwood: 3 occurrences, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: 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.
Storms near this place
18 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Atwood in 18 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 14 hail, 2 flash flood, 1 tornado, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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 1997 | Flash Flood | Atwood | $12,900,000 | Monsoon moisture continued over the area with thunderstorms drenching the Pawnee National Grasslands, north of Stoneham, with 6 to 8 inches of rainfall. Runoff from the storms eventually turned Pawnee Creek into a huge river. The wall of water, 12 feet high and 200 feet wide made its way downstream flooding the towns of Sterling and Atwood in western Logan County. Highway bridges were washed out, trees uprooted and a portion of Burlington Northern track ripped out. In addition, a 100-ton culvert was torn away and carried downstream approximately 50 feet. In Logan County, 1000 homes and 200 businesses were impacted by the floodwaters as scores of families were evacuated. Some homes in the towns of Sterling and Atwood were under 8 feet of water. At least 13,700 acres of cropland was damaged. Damage estimates of at least $12.9 million were reported to property. A breakdown of the damages included: $10.0 million to homes in Sterling alone, $900,000 to businesses, $1.0 million to a junior college, and at least $1.0 million in damage to state roads, highways and bridges. |
| July 2017 | Flash Flood | Atwood | $20,000 | Doppler radar estimated at least 3 inches of rain had fallen southwest of Sterling. |There were numerous reports of low-land flooding in and around Merino. Water flooded, basements, businesses and the post office with around one inch of standing water. |Several rural county roads were damaged by the runoff from flooded fields. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Atwood | - | Report from Mping. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Atwood | - | Report from Mping. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Atwood | - | Report from Mping. |
| July 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Atwood | - | Strong winds caused some roof damage. |
| June 2022 | Hail | Atwood | - | no account filed |
| May 2021 | Hail | Atwood | - | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Hail | Atwood | - | no account filed |
| May 2018 | Hail | Atwood | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Atwood | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Atwood | - | no account filed |
| August 2008 | Hail | Atwood | - | no account filed |
| April 2007 | Hail | Atwood | - | no account filed |
| April 2007 | Hail | Atwood | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Atwood | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Hail | Atwood | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Tornado (F0) | Atwood | - | 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.
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 Atwood | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2097555 | 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 182793. 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.



