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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.

Riley within Riley County

Population over time

2 figures

Riley 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.

YearPeople Change
2010939
2020938-1 (-0%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 19 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

24 since 2004

Regional 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/undetermined14
Debris and open burning7
Equipment and vehicle use2
Arson/incendiarism1

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
3 August 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKansas Forest Service8
8 July 2018Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresKansas Forest Service18432
3 July 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreKansas Forest Service18417
14 July 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreRiley County247
17 June 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined340 acresFort Riley KansasN TRAINING AREA 90
6 May 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreKansas Forest Service18274
4 April 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined10 acresKansas Forest Servicenot named
7 March 2017Debris and open burning10 acresRiley County76

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Riley County

Storms near this place

42 since 1996

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2005Flash FloodRiley$100,000Over 6 inches of fast flowing water bringing logs and debris across roads.
November 2005Tornado (F0)Riley$5,000This 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 1996Thunderstorm WindRiley$1,000no account filed
May 2025HailRiley-At the Riley County grade school.
April 2025HailRiley-Also had wind gusts to 53 mph.
May 2024HailRiley-Photo from social media.
May 2024HailRiley-Baseball size hail east of Riley.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindRiley-Measured on a personal weather station.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindRiley-Public report.
July 2019Thunderstorm WindRiley-Measured with a personal weather station.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindRiley-Report from social media wind gust to around 65 mph.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindRiley-Several power lines down in the town of Riley along with large healthy trees.
October 2017Thunderstorm WindRiley-Estimated wind gust of 65 MPH.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindRiley-The power was reported to be out along with numerous tree limbs down.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindRiley-Numerous 5 inch diameter tree branches were snapped by wind.
October 2013Thunderstorm WindRiley-Power out in the city of Riley.
June 2013HailRiley-Report from social media.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindRiley-Power out in Riley.
October 2003Flash FloodRiley-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 2025HailRiley-no account filed
April 2025HailRiley-no account filed
August 2019HailRiley-no account filed
August 2019HailRiley-no account filed
May 2018HailRiley-no account filed
June 2011HailRiley-no account filed
May 2007HailRiley-no account filed
August 2006HailRiley-no account filed
August 2006Thunderstorm WindRiley-no account filed
June 2005HailRiley-no account filed
September 2005HailRiley-no account filed
August 2004HailRiley-no account filed
August 2004HailRiley-no account filed
August 2004HailRiley-no account filed
April 2002Thunderstorm WindRiley-no account filed
May 2002HailRiley-no account filed
April 2002HailRiley-no account filed
April 2002HailRiley-no account filed
April 2002HailRiley-no account filed
June 2001HailRiley-no account filed
June 2001Thunderstorm WindRiley-no account filed
May 1999HailRiley-no account filed
May 1997Flash FloodRiley-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Riley 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
Leonardville4.8 miles19
Bala6.3 miles19
Walsburg6.6 miles19
Keats8.3 miles25
Lasita9.6 miles19
Elm Hollow Corner9.8 miles25
Randolph9.8 miles19
Winkler12.6 miles19

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 RileyAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q950126The 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.