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Bala, Kansas

19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Bala Township. It lies in ZIP code area 66531. The Survey maps it on the Bala quadrangle.

Bala within Riley County

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 19 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

13 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Bala between 2006 and 2020, burning about 2,459 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
Debris and open burning6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined6
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
22 July 2017Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreClay County3
6 March 2006Debris and open burning120 acresRiley Countynot named
4 March 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined415 acresFort Riley KansasTA-87
31 March 2015Debris and open burning65 acresKansas Forest Service1976
18 March 2017Debris and open burning54 acresRiley County96
14 March 2015Debris and open burning5.0 acresKansas Forest Service70
14 March 2012Missing data/not specified/undetermined1,022 acresFort Riley KansasMPRC
6 February 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined300 acresFort Riley KansasKS-DDQ-2020-363

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Riley County

Storms near this place

2 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bala in 2 storm reports between 1996 and 2013: 2 hail. 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 2013HailBala-no account filed
May 1996HailBala-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Riley 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
Leonardville6.1 miles19
Riley6.3 miles19
Lasita6.9 miles19
Walsburg9.3 miles19
Randolph13.1 miles19
Winkler13.4 miles19
Keats14.1 miles25
Elm Hollow Corner15.1 miles25

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 476196. 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.