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.
Population over time
2 figuresPalco 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 277 | |
| 2020 | 208 | -69 (-25%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 13 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.
- 1893 USGS Hill quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1893 USGS Hill City quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Beloit quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1959 USGS Beloit quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1969 USGS Palco quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Plainville quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
5 since 2015Regional 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 use | 3 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 June 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 1800004 |
| 10 April 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Rooks County | 1700005 |
| 4 March 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,500 acres | Rooks County | 1700003 |
| 18 February 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 2 |
| 25 January 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Rooks County | 1700001 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
52 since 1993Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2011 | Hail | Palco | $250,000 | Large hail resulted in broken windshields. |
| April 2001 | Tornado (F1) | Palco | $100,000 | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palco | $100,000 | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Tornado (EF1) | Palco | $75,000 | This 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 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palco | $50,000 | Wind gusts estimated to be near 70 MPH resulted in some downed power lines. |
| May 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palco | $30,000 | no account filed |
| April 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palco | $25,000 | Damaging 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 2016 | Flash Flood | Palco | $25,000 | Heavy 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 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palco | $25,000 | Winds estimated at 50 to 60 mph and accompanied by dime size hail. |
| June 2005 | Tornado (F0) | Palco | $25,000 | A 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 2017 | Hail | Palco | $25,000 | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Palco | $25,000 | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Palco | $25,000 | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palco | $25,000 | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Hail | Palco | $20,000 | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Hail | Palco | $20,000 | no account filed |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palco | $10,000 | Power outages were reported in the area. |
| April 2001 | Hail | Palco | $10,000 | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Flash Flood | Palco | $8,000 | no account filed |
| July 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palco | $5,000 | Winds estimated at 60 mph. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palco | $5,000 | Winds accompanied by nickel size hail. |
| August 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palco | $5,000 | The high winds knocked down trees and broke power lines. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Palco | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Palco | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palco | - | A wind gust of 64 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located six miles south of Palco. |
| September 2016 | Heavy Rain | Palco | - | 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 2016 | Heavy Rain | Palco | - | 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 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palco | - | Wind gusts estimated at 60 mph were accompanied by pea size hail. |
| July 2004 | Tornado (F0) | Palco | - | A brief tornado was reported by a storm spotter north of Palco. |
| March 2024 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| May 2023 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| June 2022 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palco | - | no account filed |
| July 2018 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| May 2017 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| May 2010 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| March 2004 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palco | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| May 1997 | Hail | Palco | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Hail | Palco | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Damar | 4.7 miles | 13 | |
| Zurich | 6.7 miles | 12 | |
| Webster (historical) | 12.3 miles | 13 | |
| Plainville | 14.1 miles | 12 | |
| Stockton | 20.3 miles | 14 | |
| Codell | 20.8 miles | 12 | |
| Laton | 25.9 miles | 12 | |
| Woodston | 28.5 miles | 13 |
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 Palco | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2673255 | 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 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.





