Riley, Kansas
19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Madison Township. It lies in ZIP code area 66531. The Survey maps it on the Riley quadrangle. 938 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,289 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresRiley fell from 939 to 938 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 | 939 | |
| 2020 | 938 | -1 (-0%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 19 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.
- 1886 USGS Junction City quadrangle1:125000
- 1889 USGS Junction City quadrangle1:125000
- 1894 USGS Junction City quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
- 1955 USGS Manhattan quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS Manhattan quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Manhattan quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS Riley quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Manhattan quadrangle1:100000
- 1990 USGS Manhattan quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
24 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 24 fires within 5 miles of Riley between 2004 and 2020, burning about 15,983 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14 |
| Debris and open burning | 7 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 August 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 8 |
| 8 July 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 18432 |
| 3 July 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 18417 |
| 14 July 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Riley County | 247 |
| 17 June 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 340 acres | Fort Riley Kansas | N TRAINING AREA 90 |
| 6 May 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 18274 |
| 4 April 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Kansas Forest Service | not named |
| 7 March 2017 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Riley County | 76 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
42 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Riley in 42 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 24 hail, 14 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 1 tornado. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2005 | Flash Flood | Riley | $100,000 | Over 6 inches of fast flowing water bringing logs and debris across roads. |
| November 2005 | Tornado (F0) | Riley | $5,000 | This tornado briefly touched down around 3:32 PM 3 miles east of Riley, moved north and produced F0 damage to a barn. The parent thunderstorm was a mini-supercell. |
| July 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riley | $1,000 | no account filed |
| May 2025 | Hail | Riley | - | At the Riley County grade school. |
| April 2025 | Hail | Riley | - | Also had wind gusts to 53 mph. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Riley | - | Photo from social media. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Riley | - | Baseball size hail east of Riley. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riley | - | Measured on a personal weather station. |
| July 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riley | - | Public report. |
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riley | - | Measured with a personal weather station. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riley | - | Report from social media wind gust to around 65 mph. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riley | - | Several power lines down in the town of Riley along with large healthy trees. |
| October 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riley | - | Estimated wind gust of 65 MPH. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riley | - | The power was reported to be out along with numerous tree limbs down. |
| June 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riley | - | Numerous 5 inch diameter tree branches were snapped by wind. |
| October 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riley | - | Power out in the city of Riley. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Riley | - | Report from social media. |
| May 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riley | - | Power out in Riley. |
| October 2003 | Flash Flood | Riley | - | Rains that fell during the early afternoon of the 8th were followed by another round of rainfall during the late afternoon and evening hours. The excessive rainfall, which totaled in the 2 to 4 inch range, produced considerable runoff and flash flooding. A low water crossing on Blue River Hills Road 7 miles east of Riley was flooded during the evening hours, and at times was reported to be 2 and 1/2 feet deep. A tree was washed onto Stockdale Road 7 miles northwest of Manhattan. The waters finally receded around 2100 hours. |
| April 2025 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| April 2025 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| August 2019 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| August 2019 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| May 2018 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riley | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riley | - | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riley | - | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Hail | Riley | - | no account filed |
| May 1997 | Flash Flood | Riley | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leonardville | 4.8 miles | 19 | |
| Bala | 6.3 miles | 19 | |
| Walsburg | 6.6 miles | 19 | |
| Keats | 8.3 miles | 25 | |
| Lasita | 9.6 miles | 19 | |
| Elm Hollow Corner | 9.8 miles | 25 | |
| Randolph | 9.8 miles | 19 | |
| Winkler | 12.6 miles | 19 |
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 Riley | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q950126 | 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 476207. 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.








