BlockBefore

Melvern, Kansas

16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1983. It stands in Melvern Township. It lies in ZIP code area 66510. It stands on Wolf Creek. The Survey maps it on the Lyndon quadrangle. 356 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,014 feet above sea level.

Melvern within Osage County

On record in Melvern

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

Population over time

2 figures

Melvern fell from 385 to 356 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
2010385
2020356-29 (-8%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 16 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

53 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 53 fires within 5 miles of Melvern between 2015 and 2018, burning about 388 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 burning37
Missing data/not specified/undetermined11
Smoking4
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
13 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresKansas Forest Service42
1 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresKansas Forest Service39
10 August 2018Debris and open burning5.0 acresKansas Forest Service76
12 July 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresKansas Forest Service69
8 April 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresOsage County33
5 April 2018Debris and open burning10 acresKansas Forest Service91
4 April 2015Debris and open burning5.0 acresKansas Forest Service23
29 April 2015Debris and open burning1.0 acresKansas Forest Service28

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Osage County

Storms near this place

53 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Melvern in 53 storm reports between 1993 and 2024: 33 hail, 11 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 2 funnel cloud. The reports record 7 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 1999Thunderstorm WindMelvern5 hurt, $2,000Strong winds overturned trailers at Melvern Lake resulting in minor damage and minor injuries to 5 people.
May 2002Thunderstorm WindMelvern2 hurt, $6,000Strong winds blew several tents over as well as several pull behind vehicles. Two children received minor injuries.
June 1998Thunderstorm WindMelvern$200,000no account filed
July 2004Thunderstorm WindMelvern$20,000Strong winds hit near Melvern. Considerable damage was reported. A roof was blown off a shed. Trees were reported snapped or twisted. A camper shell was carried over one half mile. Power poles were snapped leaving power outages up to 10 hours.
June 1999Thunderstorm WindMelvern$3,000Strong winds blew down tree limbs doing minor damage to property and buildings.
May 2006Heavy RainMelvern$1,000Trained spotters measured 2.60 inches to 3 inches of rain in a 1 hour period between 5:30 PM and 6:30 PM CST. from thunderstorms. One spotter reported a total rainfall of 3.90 inches of rain at 7:45 PM CST. Extensive street flooding was reported.
April 2003HailMelvern$1,000Large hail damaged some windows near Melvern.
June 2024Thunderstorm WindMelvern-Estimated wind gust north of Waverly.
December 2021HailMelvern-Hen egg sized hail from photo on social media.
May 2018Thunderstorm WindMelvern-Tree and outbuilding damage. Wind speeds estimated near 75 MPH.
May 2017HailMelvern-Several golf ball size hail stones were reported.
May 2016Flash FloodMelvern-Flooding is occurring at 285th Road, north of Melvern. The road is closed.
May 2015FloodMelvern-Flooding of low water crossing on California rd.
November 2015HailMelvern-Wind gusts between 50-60 mph.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindMelvern-A 4 ft diameter tree blown onto house.
May 2011Funnel CloudMelvern-A storm chaser witnessed a funnel cloud near Lyndon.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindMelvern-An NWS employee reported a 65 mph wind gust in Carbondale. A trained spotter reported a 60 mph wind gust in Melvern twenty minutes prior.
June 2010Tornado (EF0)Melvern-A homeowner witnessed a small funnel descend toward the ground and produce damage to a 3 telephone poles before lifting to her northeast. It was described as a thin white funnel cloud and was just above the ground and did not do any other damage. This account was relayed through county law enforcement.
June 2010Flash FloodMelvern-A trained spotter reported numerous roadways with water flowing over them. The spotter reported up to 1 foot of flowing water around Shawnee heights Road and 301st Road in Osage County. Another observer reported 1 foot of flowing water across several roads in the Quenemo and Melvern areas. Those roads were all subsequently closed until the water receded.
April 2006HailMelvern-At Melvern Lake.
May 2005Thunderstorm WindMelvern-Semi-truck blown over on i-35.
May 1993Tornado (F0)Melvern-A small tornado hit briefly in open country with no reported or observed damage.
August 2019HailMelvern-no account filed
May 2017HailMelvern-no account filed
November 2015HailMelvern-no account filed
April 2011HailMelvern-no account filed
April 2011HailMelvern-no account filed
April 2011HailMelvern-no account filed
April 2011HailMelvern-no account filed
March 2011HailMelvern-no account filed
May 2011HailMelvern-no account filed
May 2009HailMelvern-no account filed
May 2009HailMelvern-no account filed
July 2008HailMelvern-no account filed
July 2008HailMelvern-no account filed
June 2008HailMelvern-no account filed
February 2007HailMelvern-no account filed
February 2007HailMelvern-no account filed
February 2007HailMelvern-no account filed
February 2007HailMelvern-no account filed
May 2005HailMelvern-no account filed
September 2005HailMelvern-no account filed
April 2003HailMelvern-no account filed
April 2003HailMelvern-no account filed
April 2003HailMelvern-no account filed
May 2003HailMelvern-no account filed
July 2002Thunderstorm WindMelvern-no account filed
May 2001HailMelvern-no account filed
June 1999HailMelvern-no account filed
June 1998HailMelvern-no account filed
June 1998Funnel CloudMelvern-no account filed
June 1998Tornado (F0)Melvern-no account filed
March 1998HailMelvern-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Osage 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
Olivet6.3 miles17
Ridgeton7.4 miles17
Lyndon7.5 miles16
Quenemo7.7 miles14
Lyndon Station9.6 miles15
Vassar9.7 miles15
Arvonia12.4 miles17
Osage City13.3 miles14

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 MelvernAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1916979The 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 477555. 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.