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Alton, Kansas

15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1896 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Sumner Township. It lies in ZIP code area 67623. It stands on Crooked Creek. The Survey maps it on the Alton quadrangle. 100 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,650 feet above sea level.

Alton within Osborne County

Population over time

2 figures

Alton fell from 103 to 100 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
2010103
2020100-3 (-3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 15 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

2 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Alton in 2015, burning about 241 acres 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
Smoking1
Debris and open burning1

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
29 March 2015Smoking240 acresKansas Forest Service4
17 January 2015Debris and open burning1.0 acresKansas Forest Service1

Every fire recorded in Osborne County

Storms near this place

60 of 79 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alton in 79 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 51 hail, 16 thunderstorm wind, 6 flash flood, 3 heavy rain. 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 2023HailAlton$100,000no account filed
May 2008Flash FloodAlton$75,000Thunderstorms rumbled across northern Kansas and dumped several inches of rain across Osborne County. This caused several rural roads and area creeks and streams to flood.
April 2008HailAlton$75,000no account filed
August 2011Thunderstorm WindAlton$50,000Wind gusts estimated at 70 MPH resulted in a few snapped power poles.
May 2008Flash FloodAlton$50,000Thunderstorms were slow to move across southern Osborne County and dumped several inches of rain during the early evening hours. This caused several roads to become covered with water, small creeks overflowed and the South Fork of the Solomom River also flooded.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindAlton$30,000Several power poles and tree limbs were damaged in the area due to the 75 mph. Power was lost for several hours.
May 2002HailAlton$30,000no account filed
August 2019Flash FloodAlton$25,000Radar estimation and a few gauge reports indicated that 3 to 5 inches of rain fell across northern Osborne County during the evening-overnight. A social media post and photo showed several inches of water flowing rapidly over a county road a few miles southeast of Alton. Other county roads were likely impacted by the heavy rainfall as well.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindAlton$25,000Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH.
May 2024HailAlton$25,000no account filed
September 2014HailAlton$25,000no account filed
June 2014HailAlton$25,000no account filed
June 2011HailAlton$25,000no account filed
April 2005HailAlton$25,000no account filed
May 1999HailAlton$25,000no account filed
April 2001Thunderstorm WindAlton$20,000no account filed
May 2016HailAlton$15,000no account filed
June 2010Flash FloodAlton$15,000no account filed
July 2007Flash FloodAlton$10,000no account filed
July 2000HailAlton$10,000no account filed
December 2016Tornado (EF0)Alton$5,000This tornado briefly touched down northwest of Alton. Along its short path, it damaged trees, tipped over an empty bulk bin and caused very minor damage to a home. The maximum wind speed was estimated to be 85 MPH.
June 2008HailAlton$5,000no account filed
July 1994Thunderstorm WindAlton$5,000no account filed
August 2016Thunderstorm WindAlton$4,000One power pole was snapped due to thunderstorm wind gusts estimated around 70 MPH. Severe wind gusts directly preceded the rain, as it blew all loose vegetation out of the pastures into the north-south oriented fences.
May 2008HailAlton$2,000no account filed
June 2008HailAlton$2,000no account filed
June 2008HailAlton$2,000no account filed
June 2008HailAlton$2,000no account filed
July 2023Thunderstorm WindAlton$1,000Wind gusts estimated to be near 60 MPH resulted in minor tree damage in Alton.
May 1993HailAlton$500no account filed
August 1993HailAlton$500no account filed
May 1993HailAlton$500no account filed
May 1993HailAlton$500no account filed
July 2020Flash FloodAlton-Storm total rainfall amounts ranged from 4 to 7 inches across the area. The primary impact was water affecting county roads.
April 2019Thunderstorm WindAlton-A 61 MPH wind gust was measured by a mesonet station located 5 miles northeast of Alton.
April 2017HailAlton-Hail up to the size of quarters was reported and was four inches deep on the ground northwest of Alton.
August 2016HailAlton-An unofficial observation of at least 1.5 inches of rain occurred in the hour leading up to the hail report.
July 2016Heavy RainAlton-A storm total rainfall amount of 3.27 inches was reported.
June 2014Heavy RainAlton-A storm total rainfall amount of 3.40 inches was reported.
June 2013Thunderstorm WindAlton-Thunderstorms wind gusts of 60 to 70 mph occurred.
June 2013Thunderstorm WindAlton-An estimated wind gust of 70 mph occurred.
June 2011Heavy RainAlton-The Cooperative Observer reported 3.10 of storm total rainfall.
June 2011HailAlton-The hail lasted at least 15 minutes.
July 2010Thunderstorm WindAlton-Wind gusts estimated at 60 MPH knocked down numerous small tree limbs, causing power outages.
July 2010Thunderstorm WindAlton-Numerous small tree limbs knocked down in town.
April 2005Tornado (F0)Alton-A tornado in far northwest Osborne County drifted west across rural areas of the county west of Alton. No damage was reported.
May 1995HailAlton-Supercell thunderstorms produced baseball-size hail at Osborne and Damar and wind gusts to 65 mph at Palco. In Rooks County, the wind and hail combined to destroy 15 percent of the wheat crop and 25 percent of the alfalfa crop. Damage to 22 farm buildings was estimated at $50 thousand. Brief tornado touchdowns occurred near Codell and Plainville.
May 2025HailAlton-no account filed
August 2021HailAlton-no account filed
July 2020Thunderstorm WindAlton-no account filed
May 2017HailAlton-no account filed
April 2017HailAlton-no account filed
June 2014HailAlton-no account filed
June 2014HailAlton-no account filed
June 2014HailAlton-no account filed
September 2014HailAlton-no account filed
May 2013HailAlton-no account filed
May 2011HailAlton-no account filed
June 2010HailAlton-no account filed
June 2010HailAlton-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Osborne 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
Bloomington8.6 miles15
Osborne13.6 miles15
Portis14.9 miles12
Covert15.0 miles13
Forney17.8 miles15
Natoma19.8 miles12
Downs21.6 miles15
Corinth21.7 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 AltonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2233551The 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 472257. 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.