BlockBefore

Palco, Kansas

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Township 8. It lies in ZIP code area 67657. The Survey maps it on the Palco quadrangle. 208 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,277 feet above sea level.

Palco within Rooks County

Population over time

2 figures

Palco fell from 277 to 208 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
2010277
2020208-69 (-25%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 13 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

5 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Palco between 2015 and 2018, burning about 1,501 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
Equipment and vehicle use3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
16 June 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreKansas Forest Service1800004
10 April 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreRooks County1700005
4 March 2017Equipment and vehicle use1,500 acresRooks County1700003
18 February 2015Power generation/transmission/distribution1.0 acresKansas Forest Service2
25 January 2017Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreRooks County1700001

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Rooks County

Storms near this place

52 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Palco in 52 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 30 hail, 14 thunderstorm wind, 4 tornado, 2 flash flood. 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
August 2011HailPalco$250,000Large hail resulted in broken windshields.
April 2001Tornado (F1)Palco$100,000no account filed
June 1999Thunderstorm WindPalco$100,000no account filed
May 2008Tornado (EF1)Palco$75,000This tornado touched down southwest of Palco and tracked east for 2 miles. Along its path, the tornado damaged four farms. The damage was primarily confined to outbuildings, garages, and trees. The most significant damage was a wood framed metal building, which was completely destroyed and rated as EF 1 with wind speeds to 105 mph.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindPalco$50,000Wind gusts estimated to be near 70 MPH resulted in some downed power lines.
May 1995Thunderstorm WindPalco$30,000no account filed
April 2019Thunderstorm WindPalco$25,000Damaging winds as high as 75 MPH raced across Rooks County. Measured wind gusts included 75 MPH at 7:37 PM CDT by a mesonet site located 5 miles south-southwest of Stockton, 73 MPH at 7:44 PM CDT by a mesonet site located 8 miles north-northeast of Codell, and 70 MPH at 7:37 PM CDT by a mesonet site located 1 mile south-southwest of Damar. Power poles were knocked down in both Stockton and Zurich, and tree limbs of 6 to 8 inches in diameter were downed in Plainville.
May 2016Flash FloodPalco$25,000Heavy rainfall of 3 to 6 inches resulted in flash flooding of county roads. The cooperative observer 4 miles west-northwest of Plainville reported a rainfall total of 4.28 inches.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindPalco$25,000Winds estimated at 50 to 60 mph and accompanied by dime size hail.
June 2005Tornado (F0)Palco$25,000A brief tornado was reported by storm chasers near Palco. The tornado was on the ground long enough to snap some power poles north of town.
May 2017HailPalco$25,000no account filed
June 2008HailPalco$25,000no account filed
June 2005HailPalco$25,000no account filed
June 2002Thunderstorm WindPalco$25,000no account filed
May 2007HailPalco$20,000no account filed
May 2007HailPalco$20,000no account filed
July 2016Thunderstorm WindPalco$10,000Power outages were reported in the area.
April 2001HailPalco$10,000no account filed
August 2007Flash FloodPalco$8,000no account filed
July 2009Thunderstorm WindPalco$5,000Winds estimated at 60 mph.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindPalco$5,000Winds accompanied by nickel size hail.
August 1993Thunderstorm WindPalco$5,000The high winds knocked down trees and broke power lines.
June 2008HailPalco$5,000no account filed
May 2008HailPalco$5,000no account filed
August 2025Thunderstorm WindPalco-A wind gust of 64 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located six miles south of Palco.
September 2016Heavy RainPalco-A storm total rainfall amount of 4.55 inches was reported, most of which fell between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. CST.
September 2016Heavy RainPalco-A storm total rainfall amount of 5.10 inches was reported, most of which fell between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. CST.
September 2012Thunderstorm WindPalco-Wind gusts estimated at 60 mph were accompanied by pea size hail.
July 2004Tornado (F0)Palco-A brief tornado was reported by a storm spotter north of Palco.
March 2024HailPalco-no account filed
May 2023HailPalco-no account filed
June 2022HailPalco-no account filed
July 2020Thunderstorm WindPalco-no account filed
July 2018HailPalco-no account filed
May 2017HailPalco-no account filed
May 2010HailPalco-no account filed
July 2010HailPalco-no account filed
June 2010HailPalco-no account filed
June 2010HailPalco-no account filed
May 2007HailPalco-no account filed
March 2004HailPalco-no account filed
July 2004HailPalco-no account filed
June 2003HailPalco-no account filed
May 2002HailPalco-no account filed
June 2002HailPalco-no account filed
April 2001HailPalco-no account filed
August 2001Thunderstorm WindPalco-no account filed
June 1999HailPalco-no account filed
July 1999HailPalco-no account filed
June 1999HailPalco-no account filed
May 1997HailPalco-no account filed
May 1996HailPalco-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Rooks 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
Damar4.7 miles13
Zurich6.7 miles12
Webster (historical)12.3 miles13
Plainville14.1 miles12
Stockton20.3 miles14
Codell20.8 miles12
Laton25.9 miles12
Woodston28.5 miles13

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 PalcoAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2673255The 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 485295. 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.