Gas, Kansas
18 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Elm Township. It lies in ZIP code area 66749. The Survey maps it on the La Harpe quadrangle. 475 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,024 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresGas fell from 564 to 475 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 | 564 | |
| 2020 | 475 | -89 (-16%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 18 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 Iola quadrangle1:125000
- 1893 USGS Iola quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1904 USGS Iola quadrangle1:125000, 4 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 Joplin quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS La Harpe quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Chanute quadrangle1:100000
- 1990 USGS Chanute quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
49 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 49 fires within 5 miles of Gas between 2015 and 2020, burning about 376 acres in total. None started naturally. 14 were 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 | 20 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 14 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 September 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Allen County | 215 |
| 6 August 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 225 |
| 22 August 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | 2.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | not named |
| 22 August 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Allen County | 22 |
| 5 July 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 145 |
| 18 July 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Allen County | 180 |
| 15 June 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | not named |
| 7 April 2017 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Allen County | 14 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
19 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Gas in 19 storm reports between 2001 and 2026: 8 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 1 lightning. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2016 | Flash Flood | Gas | $500,000 | Widespread flooding occurred in Iola. High water approached several homes. The fire department assisted evacuating residents from their homes. Multiple cars were reported stranded due to the high water. |
| December 2008 | Lightning | Gas | $150,000 | Lightning from a broken line of strong to severe thunderstorms sparked a house fire in the community of Colony during the predawn hours of the 27th. The residence was completely destroyed. Fortunately, no one was home at the time. Information courtesy of the Iola Register. |
| April 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gas | $15,000 | Barn's roof sheared from west side of the structure that housed farm vehicles. |
| April 2014 | Hail | Gas | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gas | $5,000 | Trees with trunks 15 inches in diameter uprooted and swing set blown across a yard. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gas | $500 | Tree limbs measuring 4 inches in diameter were downed along Minnesota Road between County Road 2200 and 2400. |
| August 2013 | Flash Flood | Gas | $100 | Several roads, in and around, Iola were covered with high water from very heavy rains. |
| August 2013 | Flood | Gas | $100 | Several county roads had water over them. |
| March 2026 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gas | - | This was a delayed report of at least three trees down across northern portions of Allen County. These trees were partially blocking roadways. |
| May 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gas | - | This was an estimated wind gust. |
| March 2017 | Hail | Gas | - | Reported via social media. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gas | - | Trained spotter reported 60 mph winds. |
| August 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gas | - | Trained spotters estimated the wind gusts. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Gas | - | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Hail | Gas | - | no account filed |
| May 2020 | Hail | Gas | - | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Hail | Gas | - | no account filed |
| April 2003 | Hail | Gas | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Gas | - | 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 Gas | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2135060 | 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 474510. 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.










