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.
Population over time
2 figuresSmolan 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 215 | |
| 2020 | 162 | -53 (-25%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 16 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.
- 1892 USGS Salina quadrangle1:125000, 6 printings
- 1942 USGS Salina quadrangle1:125000
- 1955 USGS Hutchinson quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Smolan quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS Hutchinson quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Salina quadrangle1:100000
- 1990 USGS Salina quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
27 since 2015Regional 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 burning | 9 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Other causes | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 July 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Saline County | 1506 |
| 21 July 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Saline County | 1619 |
| 11 July 2017 | Smoking | under an acre | Saline County | 1522 |
| 23 June 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 1525 |
| 19 June 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 1361 |
| 15 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 910 |
| 11 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 870 |
| 10 April 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 791 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
21 since 1995Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Smolan | $500 | The strong winds damaged a fence and knocked down some small tree limbs. Three quarter inch hail also accompanied the strong winds. |
| April 2025 | Tornado (EFU) | Smolan | - | Trained spotter reported tornado with pictures sent via social media. No damage was found. |
| July 2025 | Flood | Smolan | - | Pictures sent on social media of a local creek over its banks and partially covering a road. |
| July 2025 | Flood | Smolan | - | Lingering flooding continues across several locations across the county. |
| May 2022 | Flash Flood | Smolan | - | Burma Road was flooded and impassable due to high water. |
| August 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Smolan | - | Damage to powerlines was reported, and a picture was sent affirming the damage. |
| June 2011 | Tornado (EF0) | Smolan | - | The tornado touched down briefly in open country. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Smolan | - | Estimated by a storm spotter. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Smolan | - | Estimated by a storm spotter. |
| August 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Smolan | - | Estimated by a trained spotter. |
| April 2026 | Hail | Smolan | - | no account filed |
| April 2026 | Hail | Smolan | - | no account filed |
| May 2019 | Hail | Smolan | - | no account filed |
| May 2019 | Hail | Smolan | - | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Smolan | - | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | Smolan | - | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | Smolan | - | no account filed |
| September 2008 | Hail | Smolan | - | no account filed |
| September 2008 | Hail | Smolan | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Smolan | - | no account filed |
| May 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Smolan | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phillips Village (historical) | 1.7 miles | 17 | |
| Salemsborg | 3.0 miles | 16 | |
| Mentor | 4.3 miles | 16 | |
| Bavaria | 5.5 miles | 17 | |
| Assaria | 5.8 miles | 16 | |
| Falun | 6.1 miles | 17 | |
| Salina | 8.0 miles | 16 | |
| Bridgeport | 8.5 miles | 16 |
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 Smolan | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1839382 | 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 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.






