Effingham, Kansas
20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Benton Township. It lies in ZIP code area 66023. The Survey maps it on the Effingham quadrangle. 495 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,135 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresEffingham fell from 546 to 495 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 | 546 | |
| 2020 | 495 | -51 (-9%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 20 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.
- 1885 USGS Atchison quadrangle1:125000
- 1888 USGS Atchison quadrangle1:125000
- 1893 USGS Atchison quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1950 USGS Kansas City quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Kansas City quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Kansas City quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1960 USGS Kansas City quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Effingham quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Atchison quadrangle1:100000
- 1990 USGS Atchison quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
18 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 18 fires within 5 miles of Effingham between 2015 and 2020, burning about 369 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 burning | 12 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 September 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 2015063 |
| 7 May 2018 | Smoking | 2.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 2018060 |
| 7 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 30 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 2018047 |
| 7 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | 160 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 2015016 |
| 7 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | 25 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 2015015 |
| 6 March 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 2016023 |
| 6 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 2015013 |
| 4 March 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Atchison County | 2017025 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
41 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Effingham in 41 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 21 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 4 flash flood, 2 tornado. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2002 | Tornado (F0) | Effingham | $25,000 | An F0 tornado briefly touched down 2 miles west southwest of Effingham Kansas, moving to the northeast around 1/4 of a mile. One house had windows blown out and on the same property a large grain truck was blown over with its windows knocked out.. It also destroyed two sheds and blew hay bales, lumber and debris all over the property. |
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Effingham | $5,000 | A roof of a barn was blown off. Six inch diameter tree limbs were snapped off. Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated up to 70 mph. |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Effingham | $5,000 | A tool shed was blown down. |
| July 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Effingham | $5,000 | High winds knocked down trees, power lines and damaged crops. Damage was also reported north of Nortonville. |
| July 1995 | Hail | Effingham | $3,000 | A severe thunderstorm moved across Atchison County between 2230 CST and 1230 CST producing golf ball-size in Effingham and Potter. Pea-size hail and wind gusts up to 50 mph were reported at Cummings and Lancaster. Numerous trees were reported blown down. |
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Effingham | $1,000 | Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated up to 70 mph. Windows on the north side of a home, were blown out. |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Effingham | $1,000 | A severe thunderstorm moved through Atchison County. 60 mph winds were observed at Muscotah and trees were down in Atchison and in Effingham. |
| October 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Effingham | - | Downed trees reported in Effingham. |
| May 2019 | Tornado (EF1) | Effingham | - | A low topped supercell produced a tornado in Atchison County Kansas. This supercell was part of a larger group of supercells across northeast Kansas. Structural damage wasn't noted, but several power poles were snapped as a result of the narrow tornado. |
| October 2014 | Flood | Effingham | - | Road closed at 294th Street and Edwards Road due to flooding. |
| May 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Effingham | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated up to 60 mph. The wind caused a 24 inch diameter tree to be blown over, and several other tree branches to be damaged. |
| October 2007 | Heavy Rain | Effingham | - | Three and two tenths inches of rain reported, since event began overnight. |
| June 2005 | Flash Flood | Effingham | - | 258th and 230th streets closed due to high water. |
| August 2005 | Flash Flood | Effingham | - | 254th and Decatur closed due to high water. |
| October 2005 | Flash Flood | Effingham | - | Water over road at K-9 and Haskell road. |
| June 2001 | Flash Flood | Effingham | - | Roads that remain closed due to flooding include: 59 Hwy at Edwards...US 74 north of Effingham...230th and Ottawa...206th west of Rollins...Kansas 9 and Haskell...Ottawa and 286th...Sherman Rd between 242nd and 246th streets. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Effingham | - | Thunderstorm winds knocked down power lines in Effingham resulting in numerous power outages. |
| May 1997 | Hail | Effingham | - | The county sheriff's office reported dime-size hail along the south side of Effingham just off Highway 159. |
| April 2023 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| April 2020 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| May 2017 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| April 2016 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| August 2011 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| August 2011 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| May 2010 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| May 2009 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| March 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| March 2000 | Hail | Effingham | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Effingham | - | 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.
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 Effingham | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2901513 | 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 473477. 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.









