Hepler, Kansas
22 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1884 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Walnut Township. It lies in ZIP code area 66746. The Survey maps it on the Hepler quadrangle. 90 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,001 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresHepler fell from 132 to 90 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 | 132 | |
| 2020 | 90 | -42 (-32%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
14 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.
- 1884 USGS Fort Scott quadrangle1:125000
- 1886 USGS Fort Scott quadrangle1:125000
- 1893 USGS Fort Scott quadrangle1:125000, 6 printings
- 1893 USGS Ft Scott quadrangle1:125000
- 1947 USGS Joplin quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS Girard quadrangle1:62500
- 1949 USGS Girard quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1949 USGS Joplin quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Joplin quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Joplin quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Joplin quadrangle1:250000
- 1973 USGS Hepler quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Nevada quadrangle1:100000
- 1991 USGS Nevada quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
8 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Hepler between 2015 and 2017, burning about 114 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 |
|---|---|
| Smoking | 4 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 April 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Bourbon County | 118 |
| 16 March 2015 | Smoking | 20 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 100 |
| 27 February 2016 | Smoking | 60 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 54 |
| 27 February 2016 | Smoking | 20 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 58 |
| 12 February 2017 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Bourbon County | 42 |
| 29 October 2015 | Smoking | 2.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 308 |
| 16 January 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 17 |
| 1 January 2015 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 1 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
16 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Hepler in 16 storm reports between 1994 and 2026: 10 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 heavy rain, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2017 | Tornado (EF0) | Hepler | $50,000 | A National Weather Service storm survey revealed that an EF-1 tornado touched down approximately one mile southeast of Hepler, Kansas. The tornado destroyed one outbuilding and heavily damaging two other outbuildings. Several farm equipment items were also heavily damaged and thrown by the tornado. Estimated peak wind speed was 95 mph. |
| April 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hepler | $500 | no account filed |
| April 2026 | Hail | Hepler | - | Quarter sized hail was reported. |
| April 2017 | Flash Flood | Hepler | - | Numerous low water crossings were flooded in Crawford County. Locations which were flooded include 730th Ave near State Line Road and 700th Ave west of 250th. |
| April 2013 | Heavy Rain | Hepler | - | A twenty four hour rainfall total of 4 inches was reported. |
| August 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hepler | - | Several power poles were reported leaning over near Hepler. |
| March 2011 | Hail | Hepler | - | The public reported penny sized hail and it covered the ground. |
| April 2015 | Hail | Hepler | - | no account filed |
| March 2008 | Hail | Hepler | - | no account filed |
| March 2006 | Hail | Hepler | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Hepler | - | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Hail | Hepler | - | no account filed |
| March 2003 | Hail | Hepler | - | no account filed |
| March 2003 | Hail | Hepler | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hepler | - | no account filed |
| September 2000 | Hail | Hepler | - | 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 Hepler | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1936099 | 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 474993. 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.













