Downs, Kansas
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1896 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Ross Township. It lies in ZIP code area 67437. It stands on Dry Creek. The Survey maps it on the Downs South quadrangle. 800 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,483 feet above sea level.
On record in Downs
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 2 records
Downs Carnegie Librarylisted 1987
Downs Missouri Pacific Depotlisted 2001
Population over time
2 figuresDowns fell from 900 to 800 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 | 900 | |
| 2020 | 800 | -100 (-11%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 15 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.
- 1896 USGS Osborne quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1953 USGS Downs South quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Beloit quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1959 USGS Beloit quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1985 USGS Beloit quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
5 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Downs between 2015 and 2018, burning about 5 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 | 3 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 June 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 180011 |
| 30 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 9 |
| 23 March 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 3232015 |
| 20 October 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 19 |
| 18 October 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 150034 |
Storms near this place
44 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Downs in 44 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 27 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 2 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2005 | Hail | Downs | $2,000,000 | no account filed |
| May 2024 | Hail | Downs | $1,000,000 | Hail ranging in size from ping pong balls to baseballs was reported across Downs. |
| June 2015 | Tornado (EF1) | Downs | $250,000 | This tornado moved west, and began with damage to a silo and large metal building. On the tornado's trek, it tossed grain bin debris about three quarters of a mile. The tornado narrowly missed a new home, but damaged a vacant home on the same property. The tornado lifted in a field west of the farmstead. The movement of this tornado, along with the eastward moving tornado to the south, suggested that the parent mesocyclone associated with the supercell storm was near the ground and that the two tornadoes were rotating within that circulation. |
| May 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Downs | $200,000 | no account filed |
| September 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Downs | $100,000 | Wind gusts estimated near 70 mph damaged the second story of a house under construction on Highway 24. A carport was also knocked over, several fences flattened, and several trees of 6 to 8 inches in diameter were blown down. |
| April 2001 | Tornado (F1) | Downs | $100,000 | Exited Osborne county into Smith county |
| July 1996 | Hail | Downs | $100,000 | no account filed |
| September 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Downs | $80,000 | no account filed |
| October 2017 | Hail | Downs | $50,000 | no account filed |
| July 2017 | Hail | Downs | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Downs | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Hail | Downs | $35,000 | Quarter sized hail was observed in conjunction with the estimated 70 mph wind gust. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Downs | $35,000 | Quarter sized hail was observed in conjunction with the estimated 70 mph wind gust. |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Downs | $25,000 | Wind gusts were estimated to be as high as 75 MPH. |
| August 2019 | Heavy Rain | Downs | $25,000 | A 12-hour total rainfall of 4.69 inches was measured in Downs. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Downs | $25,000 | Numerous tree limbs were down across town. |
| September 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Downs | $20,000 | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Flood | Downs | $15,000 | As a result of rainfall totals as high as 3 to 5 inches reported in the area, flooding occurred across northeastern portions of the county. A few county roads along with 2 bridges northwest of Covert were reported covered in water and closed, with some road closures lasted well into the day on the 25th. Ditches filled up, and water started to creep onto Highway 24 near Bloomington, but the road was not closed. |
| May 2011 | Hail | Downs | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Downs | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Downs | $10,000 | no account filed |
| April 2008 | Hail | Downs | $10,000 | no account filed |
| April 2008 | Hail | Downs | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Downs | $10,000 | no account filed |
| December 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Downs | $5,000 | Emergency management reported downed tree limbs in Downs. |
| May 2004 | Hail | Downs | $5,000 | no account filed |
| September 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Downs | $3,000 | Minor damage was reported to the roof, siding and garage of one home in Downs from wind gusts estimated to be near 60 mph.. A larger tree branch was also broken off of the main trunk. |
| April 1994 | Hail | Downs | $500 | no account filed |
| August 2016 | Hail | Downs | - | Heavy rain also occurred along with the nickel size hail. |
| August 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Downs | - | Branches knocked down by winds estimated at 60 MPH. |
| July 2010 | Heavy Rain | Downs | - | Storm total rainfall from the previous 12 hours topped out at 5.00 inches. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Downs | - | Wind gusts estimated at 60 mph. |
| August 2020 | Hail | Downs | - | no account filed |
| August 2020 | Hail | Downs | - | no account filed |
| May 2014 | Hail | Downs | - | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Hail | Downs | - | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Hail | Downs | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Downs | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Downs | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Downs | - | no account filed |
| October 2001 | Hail | Downs | - | no account filed |
| September 2001 | Hail | Downs | - | no account filed |
| March 1998 | Hail | Downs | - | no account filed |
| September 1995 | Hail | Downs | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corinth | 5.7 miles | 15 | |
| Forney | 7.1 miles | 15 | |
| Osborne | 9.1 miles | 15 | |
| Portis | 9.2 miles | 12 | |
| Bloomington | 13.4 miles | 15 | |
| Cheyenne Gap (historical) | 20.0 miles | 13 | |
| Covert | 20.7 miles | 13 | |
| Alton | 21.6 miles | 15 |
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 Downs | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1023037 | 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 472295. 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.




