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Smolan, Kansas

16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1892 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Smolan Township. It lies in ZIP code area 67456. The Survey maps it on the Smolan quadrangle. 162 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,283 feet above sea level.

Smolan within Saline County

Population over time

2 figures

Smolan fell from 215 to 162 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
2010215
2020162-53 (-25%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 16 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

27 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 27 fires within 5 miles of Smolan between 2015 and 2018, burning about 44 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were 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 burning9
Missing data/not specified/undetermined7
Equipment and vehicle use5
Smoking2
Arson/incendiarism2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Other causes1

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
9 July 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreSaline County1506
21 July 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresSaline County1619
11 July 2017Smokingunder an acreSaline County1522
23 June 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreKansas Forest Service1525
19 June 2015Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreKansas Forest Service1361
15 April 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreKansas Forest Service910
11 April 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreKansas Forest Service870
10 April 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreKansas Forest Service791

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Saline County

Storms near this place

21 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Smolan in 21 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 10 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 2 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
June 2008Thunderstorm WindSmolan$500The strong winds damaged a fence and knocked down some small tree limbs. Three quarter inch hail also accompanied the strong winds.
April 2025Tornado (EFU)Smolan-Trained spotter reported tornado with pictures sent via social media. No damage was found.
July 2025FloodSmolan-Pictures sent on social media of a local creek over its banks and partially covering a road.
July 2025FloodSmolan-Lingering flooding continues across several locations across the county.
May 2022Flash FloodSmolan-Burma Road was flooded and impassable due to high water.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindSmolan-Damage to powerlines was reported, and a picture was sent affirming the damage.
June 2011Tornado (EF0)Smolan-The tornado touched down briefly in open country.
June 2009Thunderstorm WindSmolan-Estimated by a storm spotter.
June 2009Thunderstorm WindSmolan-Estimated by a storm spotter.
August 2009Thunderstorm WindSmolan-Estimated by a trained spotter.
April 2026HailSmolan-no account filed
April 2026HailSmolan-no account filed
May 2019HailSmolan-no account filed
May 2019HailSmolan-no account filed
June 2011HailSmolan-no account filed
June 2009HailSmolan-no account filed
June 2009HailSmolan-no account filed
September 2008HailSmolan-no account filed
September 2008HailSmolan-no account filed
June 2002HailSmolan-no account filed
May 1995Thunderstorm WindSmolan-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Saline 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
Phillips Village (historical)1.7 miles17
Salemsborg3.0 miles16
Mentor4.3 miles16
Bavaria5.5 miles17
Assaria5.8 miles16
Falun6.1 miles17
Salina8.0 miles16
Bridgeport8.5 miles16

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 SmolanAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1839382The 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 476947. 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.