BlockBefore

Montezuma, Kansas

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1892 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Montezuma Township. It lies in ZIP code area 67867. The Survey maps it on the Montezuma quadrangle. 975 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,772 feet above sea level.

Montezuma within Gray County

Population over time

2 figures

Montezuma grew from 966 to 975 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
2010966
2020975+9 (+1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 12 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

2 since 2016

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Montezuma between 2016 and 2017, burning about 805 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 burning1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1

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
19 February 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined805 acresGray CountyMONTEZUMA WILDFIRE 2017
15 February 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreKansas Forest Service3

Every fire recorded in Gray County

Storms near this place

60 of 157 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Montezuma in 157 storm reports between 1995 and 2024: 93 hail, 45 thunderstorm wind, 9 tornado, 6 heavy rain. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 1998HailMontezuma$500,000no account filed
July 2015Thunderstorm WindMontezuma$75,000A center pivot was overturned by the high wind at this location.
May 2015Tornado (EF1)Montezuma$40,000This was the fifth of five landspout tornadoes. This one struck a farm doing low end EF1 damage to a well built 60 by 100 foot building, a tractor and home. Wind speeds estimated to be about 90 MPH.
June 1996Thunderstorm WindMontezuma$4,000no account filed
June 2017Thunderstorm WindMontezuma$1,000Several power poles were blown down at Road 8 and Road CC.
August 1998Thunderstorm WindMontezuma$1,000Five inch tree limbs blow down.
May 2024Heavy RainMontezuma-Rainfall report of 1.24 inches.
February 2023Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-Large tree uprooted in Montezuma. A Picture of the damage was received via social media.
August 2023Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-Structural damage to shed near the intersection of road 10 and road U. Power poles snapped, trees down, pivot irrigation flipped, and crops stripped in the vicinity.
October 2021Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-Winds were estimated to be gusting to at least 70 MPH.
June 2019Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-A nearby wheat field was mowed over by the high wind combined with hail of unknown size.
June 2019Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-Winds were estimated to be around 65 MPH.
May 2019Funnel CloudMontezuma-The funnel was brief.
May 2019Tornado (EFU)Montezuma-This fast moving and apparent QLCS tornado passed over open areas.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-Winds were estimated to be 60 MPH.
April 2016Heavy RainMontezuma-Rainfall of 3.25 was observed.
June 2016Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-Two power poles and 4 to 6 inch diameter tree branches were blown down.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-Two power poles were blown down by the high wind.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-There were several reports of 6 to 7 inch diameter tree limbs broken.
May 2015Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-Wind gusts picked up dirt and lowered visibilities to near zero.
May 2015Heavy RainMontezuma-Rainfall of 3.30 inches was observed.
May 2015Tornado (EF0)Montezuma-This was the third of five landspout tornadoes.
May 2015Tornado (EF0)Montezuma-This was the fourth out of five landspout tornadoes.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-Winds were estimated to be 65 MPH.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-Ten power poles were blown down along Highway 56 near 17 Road.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-Winds were estimated to be 60 MPH.
May 2013HailMontezuma-The hail was 1 to 2 inches deep.
May 2012Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-Several large tree limbs 3 to 4 inches in diameter were blown out of a tree line. The observer indicated it appeared to be a gustnado that moved through along the leading edge of the strong wind.
April 2012Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-The wind picked up a considerable amount of dust.
July 2008Heavy RainMontezuma-Rainfall of 1.50 fell in 35 minutes.
July 2008Heavy RainMontezuma-Three inches of rain fell in just a little over an hour. Water was up to the top of the curbs in the streets.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-A shed was destroyed by high winds and several power poles were blown down.
August 2007FloodMontezuma-Street flooding was report all throughout town.
May 2007Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-KSN weatherlab site.
May 2006Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-Power poles were blown down.
June 2006Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-The roof was torn off the end of the old grade school. Numerous tree limbs were blown down across town.
June 2006Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-Reported by the KSNW-TV weatherlab at teh South Gray High School.
October 2006Tornado (F0)Montezuma-A short lived land spout did not hit anything.
October 2006Tornado (F0)Montezuma-This tornado moved into Ford county at 1612 CST but did not strike anything.
April 2005Tornado (F0)Montezuma-Another tornado that moved southwest during this afternoon.
April 2005Tornado (F0)Montezuma-There was nothing for this southwest moving landspout to hit.
June 2005HailMontezuma-Three windows were broken out of the house.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-This wind occurred with the penny sized hail.
June 2005Heavy RainMontezuma-The rain fell in less than 2 hours.
June 2002Tornado (F0)Montezuma-This small tornado did no damage.
June 2002Thunderstorm WindMontezuma-Two to three inch diameter tree limbs blown down.
August 1999Flash FloodMontezuma-Water was over the road in six places between this location and highway 23 to the east.
May 1998HailMontezuma-Four windows broken out of a house.
August 1997HailMontezuma-Hail covered the ground.
August 2021HailMontezuma-no account filed
October 2021HailMontezuma-no account filed
June 2020HailMontezuma-no account filed
June 2019HailMontezuma-no account filed
June 2019HailMontezuma-no account filed
July 2019HailMontezuma-no account filed
May 2019HailMontezuma-no account filed
May 2019HailMontezuma-no account filed
May 2018HailMontezuma-no account filed
July 2016HailMontezuma-no account filed
May 2015Funnel CloudMontezuma-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Gray 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
Haggard7.0 miles12
Copeland10.6 miles12
Ensign11.8 miles12
Cimarron15.4 miles12
Ingalls16.0 miles12
Wettick16.8 miles12
Charleston19.7 miles12

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 MontezumaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2739080The 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 471706. 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.