Lakin, Kansas

15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1891 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Lakin Township. It lies in ZIP code area 67860. It stands on Sand Creek. The Survey maps it on the Lakin quadrangle. 2,205 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,002 feet above sea level.

Lakin within Kearny County

On record in Lakin

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 1 record

Indian Moundlisted 2013

Population over time

2 figures

Lakin fell from 2,216 to 2,205 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	2,216
2020	2,205	-11 (-0%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 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.

1891 USGS Larned quadrangle1:125000
1900 USGS Lakin quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
1955 USGS Dodge City quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1958 USGS Dodge City quadrangle1:250000
1959 USGS Dodge City quadrangle1:250000
1966 USGS Lakin quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1985 USGS Ulysses quadrangle1:100000
1987 USGS Ulysses quadrangle1:100000

Storms near this place

60 of 359 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lakin in 359 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 237 hail, 89 thunderstorm wind, 13 tornado, 10 heavy rain. The reports record 2 injuries. 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 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	2 hurt, $3,500,000	Thunderstorm winds were estimated to be from 90 to 100 mph. A mobile home was destroyed and another was heavily damaged. Two occupants of the destroyed trailer were injured, on seriously. There were also 16 pivot irrigation sprinklers overturned in a 4 mile radius of this location. In addition, 20 power poles were snapped and a large grain bin was destroyed. Large hay bales were blown around and all windows in the machinery and vehicles were blown out.
September 1993	Hail	Lakin	$500,000	no account filed
April 2010	Tornado (EF1)	Lakin	$180,000	This tornado was a mile wide at it's maximum size as witnessed by storm chasers and storm spotters. It did minimal damage to pivot sprinklers and barns as this was a very sparsely populated area.
August 1997	Flash Flood	Lakin	$100,000	Widespread stratiform rain fell producing 5 to 10 inches. Flooding washed out a bridge on highway 25 between Lakin and Leoti. A watershed lake filled up to capacity...one that had not had water in it for over 30 years. Rainfall of 2 to 5 inches was widespread across the entire county and other parts of southwest and west central Kansas.
June 1995	Hail	Lakin	$50,000	Water over Highway 25.
September 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	$50,000	no account filed
March 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	$7,000	The roof was blown off a building, a semi was overturned and power lines were brought down.
June 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	$1,500	Three power poles blown down.
July 2009	Flood	Lakin	$1,000	Several farm roads were washed out by the heavy rainfall. Amounts of 4 1/2 inches were reported in a span of 45 to 60 minutes. Damage estimates were never made available.
June 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	$1,000	Several poles blown down.
September 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Mesonet station DW5288 Kendall recorded a 64 mph wind gust.
May 2025	Hail	Lakin	-	Kearny county emergency manager reported 1 inch hail.
August 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	A public report of a 65 mph wind gust.
July 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Measured at the mesonet site D5288.
May 2023	Heavy Rain	Lakin	-	NWS employee reported 2.77 inches of rain fell 6ESE of Kendall.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Numerous reports of tree limb damage across town.
June 2023	Flash Flood	Lakin	-	Several stalled cars across town due to flooded streets. Many roads, including highway 50 through town were curb to curb with water.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Reported by a storm chaser.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Strong Winds.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Social Media reports of power out and tree limbs down in the city of Lakin.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Social media report of an enclosed trailer flipperd and center pivot down.
May 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Observed in Lakin.
May 2021	Heavy Rain	Lakin	-	Rainfall of 2.64 was observed.
May 2020	Tornado (EFU)	Lakin	-	This was a slow moving elephant trunk tornado but there was nothing for the tornado to damage as it moved across sagebrush and pastures.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	A semi truck was blown over by high wind.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	There were several reports of 6 to 8 inch diameter tree branches blown down.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Shingles were blown off several roofs and a few trees were blown down.
June 2020	Hail	Lakin	-	The hail lasted 5 minutes.
May 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Winds were estimated to be 70 MPH.
August 2018	Flash Flood	Lakin	-	There were multiple reports of county roads and highways flooded from excessive rainfall.
August 2018	Heavy Rain	Lakin	-	Rainfall of 4.80 inches was observed.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Winds were estimated to be 70 to 75 MPH.
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Winds were estimated to be 60 MPH.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Winds were estimated to be 60 MPH.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Wind gusts were estimated to be 70 MPH.
July 2017	Heavy Rain	Lakin	-	Rainfall was 2.06 inches.
June 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Winds were estimated to be 60 MPH.
August 2016	Heavy Rain	Lakin	-	Rainfall of 2.70 inches was observed. Bar ditches were full with water flowing across River Road in some spots.
May 2013	Tornado (EF0)	Lakin	-	Three tornadoes were observed. from 1850 - 1923 CDT.
May 2013	Tornado (EF0)	Lakin	-	A brief spin-up was observed lifting dirt but no damage was reported.
May 2013	Hail	Lakin	-	The hail piled up to 2 inches in depth.
October 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Damage occurred to the side of a mobile home. Power lines were also blown down by the high wind gusts.
October 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Power lines were blown down by the high wind.
June 2013	Tornado (EF0)	Lakin	-	This tornado developed at an occlusion of the gust front but did not strike anything.
August 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Winds were estimated to be 70 MPH.
August 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Roofs were blown off two homes and a metal shed was total destroyed by the high winds.
August 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Two barns were destroyed at a dairy and five cattle were killed.
May 2013	Tornado (EF0)	Lakin	-	A brief spin-up was observed lifting dirt but no damage was reported.
June 2012	Heavy Rain	Lakin	-	Rainfall of 2.0 was measured during this period.
June 2012	Heavy Rain	Lakin	-	Rainfall of 1.75 was measured during this period.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	A semi truck was blown over at a location 2 miles north of the Grant and Kearny county line on K25.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Winds were estimated to be 60 MPH.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Wind gusts were estimated to be 60 MPH and there was fence damage in the area.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Winds were estimated to be 65 MPH.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Numerous tree branches were broken along with a few power poles.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	A semi truck was blown over on highway 50 near mile marker 37.
August 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Power lines were blown down.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	Six to eight inch diameter tree limbs were broken, some of which brought down power lines.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Lakin	-	A trained spotter indicated the winds were about 60 mph.
July 2009	Hail	Lakin	-	There was extensive crop damage as the hail was driven by 60 to 80 mph winds.

Every storm recorded in Kearny 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Deerfield	7.0 miles	15
Hartland	7.2 miles	15
Sutton	11.4 miles	14

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 Lakin	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1004691	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 471593. 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.

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.