Buffalo, Kansas
22 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Clifton Township. It lies in ZIP code area 66717. It stands on Bloody Run. The Survey maps it on the Buffalo quadrangle. 217 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 935 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBuffalo fell from 232 to 217 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 | 232 | |
| 2020 | 217 | -15 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 22 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.
- 1886 USGS Fredonia quadrangle1:125000
- 1894 USGS Fredonia quadrangle1:125000, 6 printings
- 1938 USGS Altoona quadrangle1:62500
- 1939 USGS Altoona quadrangle1:48000
- 1943 USGS Altoona quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1947 USGS Joplin quadrangle1:250000
- 1949 USGS Joplin quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Joplin quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Joplin quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Buffalo quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS Joplin quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Chanute quadrangle1:100000
- 1990 USGS Chanute quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
15 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 15 fires within 5 miles of Buffalo between 2015 and 2018, burning about 259 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 July 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 6.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 2015044 |
| 9 June 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Wilson County | 2017029 |
| 7 April 2015 | Debris and open burning | 100 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 2015040 |
| 29 March 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 2015038 |
| 29 March 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 18 |
| 16 March 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 17 |
| 16 March 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 45 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 2015030 |
| 16 March 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 2015031 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
24 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Buffalo in 24 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 12 hail, 11 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buffalo | $5,000 | A line of thunderstorms packing winds in excess of 70 miles an hour crossed south-central Kansas. The winds caused widespread damage to trees and power lines and scattered structural damage to outbuildings and homes. The winds hit that section of south-central Kansas east of Wellington to Wichita to El Dorado. They finally settled down by the time the storms had moved east to an Iola to Chanute to Coffeyville line. Other significant damage included outbuildings destroyed at two locations southeast of Wellington and west of Moline. |
| April 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buffalo | $2,500 | The porch to a house was damaged by severe straight line winds. |
| May 2019 | Flash Flood | Buffalo | $100 | Water was reported flowing over Highway 39 from Udall Road to Wichita Road. Rainfall amounts were reported to be 3.5 to 4 inches. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buffalo | - | Several tree limbs were knocked down. |
| July 2025 | Hail | Buffalo | - | This was a measured hail stone in Buffalo. Golf ball sized hail was reported about a mile west of town as well. |
| March 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buffalo | - | This was an estimated gust. |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buffalo | - | Trees were reported down across town. This was a delayed report. |
| April 2014 | Hail | Buffalo | - | There were lots of pea sized hail but some were the size of nickels. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buffalo | - | Large trees were downed and one was blown into a house. |
| April 2008 | Hail | Buffalo | - | Pea to penny size hail occurred. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Buffalo | - | no account filed |
| February 2017 | Hail | Buffalo | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Buffalo | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buffalo | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Hail | Buffalo | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buffalo | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Buffalo | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Buffalo | - | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buffalo | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buffalo | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buffalo | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Buffalo | - | no account filed |
| September 1998 | Hail | Buffalo | - | no account filed |
| September 1998 | Hail | Buffalo | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roper | 3.8 miles | 22 | |
| Rest | 4.4 miles | 22 | |
| South Ridge (historical) | 5.4 miles | 21 | |
| Benedict | 6.5 miles | 24 | |
| Vilas | 7.0 miles | 21 | |
| Middletown | 7.2 miles | 24 | |
| Guilford | 7.7 miles | 23 | |
| Benedict Junction | 7.9 miles | 24 |
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 Buffalo | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2548074 | 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 474927. 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.












