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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.

Downs within Osborne County

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

Population over time

2 figures

Downs 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.

YearPeople Change
2010900
2020800-100 (-11%)

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

5 since 2015

Regional 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/undetermined3
Debris and open burning1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
20 June 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKansas Forest Service180011
30 March 2015Debris and open burning3.0 acresKansas Forest Service9
23 March 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresKansas Forest Service3232015
20 October 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKansas Forest Service19
18 October 2015Power generation/transmission/distribution1.0 acresKansas Forest Service150034

Every fire recorded in Osborne County

Storms near this place

44 since 1994

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2005HailDowns$2,000,000no account filed
May 2024HailDowns$1,000,000Hail ranging in size from ping pong balls to baseballs was reported across Downs.
June 2015Tornado (EF1)Downs$250,000This 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 2002Thunderstorm WindDowns$200,000no account filed
September 2012Thunderstorm WindDowns$100,000Wind 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 2001Tornado (F1)Downs$100,000Exited Osborne county into Smith county
July 1996HailDowns$100,000no account filed
September 1997Thunderstorm WindDowns$80,000no account filed
October 2017HailDowns$50,000no account filed
July 2017HailDowns$50,000no account filed
June 1996Thunderstorm WindDowns$50,000no account filed
June 2013HailDowns$35,000Quarter sized hail was observed in conjunction with the estimated 70 mph wind gust.
June 2013Thunderstorm WindDowns$35,000Quarter sized hail was observed in conjunction with the estimated 70 mph wind gust.
May 2022Thunderstorm WindDowns$25,000Wind gusts were estimated to be as high as 75 MPH.
August 2019Heavy RainDowns$25,000A 12-hour total rainfall of 4.69 inches was measured in Downs.
June 2013Thunderstorm WindDowns$25,000Numerous tree limbs were down across town.
September 2006Thunderstorm WindDowns$20,000no account filed
May 2011FloodDowns$15,000As 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 2011HailDowns$10,000no account filed
May 2011HailDowns$10,000no account filed
May 2011HailDowns$10,000no account filed
April 2008HailDowns$10,000no account filed
April 2008HailDowns$10,000no account filed
June 2004HailDowns$10,000no account filed
December 2021Thunderstorm WindDowns$5,000Emergency management reported downed tree limbs in Downs.
May 2004HailDowns$5,000no account filed
September 2013Thunderstorm WindDowns$3,000Minor 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 1994HailDowns$500no account filed
August 2016HailDowns-Heavy rain also occurred along with the nickel size hail.
August 2010Thunderstorm WindDowns-Branches knocked down by winds estimated at 60 MPH.
July 2010Heavy RainDowns-Storm total rainfall from the previous 12 hours topped out at 5.00 inches.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindDowns-Wind gusts estimated at 60 mph.
August 2020HailDowns-no account filed
August 2020HailDowns-no account filed
May 2014HailDowns-no account filed
June 2013HailDowns-no account filed
June 2013HailDowns-no account filed
May 2011HailDowns-no account filed
June 2010HailDowns-no account filed
June 2010HailDowns-no account filed
October 2001HailDowns-no account filed
September 2001HailDowns-no account filed
March 1998HailDowns-no account filed
September 1995HailDowns-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
Corinth5.7 miles15
Forney7.1 miles15
Osborne9.1 miles15
Portis9.2 miles12
Bloomington13.4 miles15
Cheyenne Gap (historical)20.0 miles13
Covert20.7 miles13
Alton21.6 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 DownsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1023037The 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.