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Decatur, Michigan

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1944 and the latest in 1982. It stands in Decatur Township. It lies in ZIP code area 49045. The Survey maps it on the Decatur quadrangle. 1,651 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 787 feet above sea level.

Decatur within Van Buren County

Population over time

2 figures

Decatur fell from 1,819 to 1,651 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
20101,819
20201,651-168 (-9%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 12 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

14 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of Decatur between 2003 and 2019, burning about 6 acres in total. 1 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
Debris and open burning8
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Recreation and ceremony1
Equipment and vehicle use1
Natural1

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
28 September 2019Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesDECATUR-HAMILTON FD 0000055 - 2019
16 June 2003Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
15 June 2003Debris and open burningunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
30 April 2014Debris and open burningunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesVAN BUREN 0005
30 April 2014Debris and open burningunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesVAN BUREN 0007
30 April 2014Debris and open burningunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesVAN BUREN 0006
30 April 2014Debris and open burningunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesVAN BUREN 0001
30 April 2014Debris and open burningunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesVAN BUREN 0003

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Van Buren County

Storms near this place

19 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Decatur in 19 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 13 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail. 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
May 2024Thunderstorm WindDecatur$50,000Several trees were uprooted and snapped off near Decatur and large hail was reported as well.
August 2000Thunderstorm WindDecatur$50,000no account filed
November 2020Thunderstorm WindDecatur$25,000Several trees were blown down across parts of Van Buren county.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindDecatur$20,000There were several reports of downed trees and limbs.
August 2006Thunderstorm WindDecatur$15,000Large trees were blown down in Decatur.
September 2019Thunderstorm WindDecatur$10,000Several trees were blown down near Decatur.
July 2015Thunderstorm WindDecatur$10,000Several trees were blown down in southeastern Van Buren county from around Decatur to north of Paw Paw.
June 1999Thunderstorm WindDecatur$10,000Trees were downed by gusty thunderstorm winds in Decatur.
May 2001HailDecatur$10,000no account filed
October 2007Thunderstorm WindDecatur$5,000Several trees were blown down by wind gusts estimated at 60 mph.
October 2002Thunderstorm WindDecatur$3,000Two trees were blown down about ten miles northwest of the town of Decatur, reported by local law enforcement.
April 1994HailDecatur$500Hail of one-inch in diameter damaged several vehicle windshields. Eaton County
March 2025Thunderstorm WindDecatur-Several trees snapped.
February 2024HailDecatur-Three quarters inch diameter hail was reported by the public three miles southeast of Decatur.
February 2024HailDecatur-A trained spotter reported one inch diameter hail as well as wind gusts estimated at up to 70 mph.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindDecatur-A peak wind gust to 60 mph was reported in Decatur.
May 2018HailDecatur-Quarter sized diameter hail was reported near Decatur.
August 1995Thunderstorm WindDecatur-Trees blown down by thunderstorm winds.
April 1994HailDecatur-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Van Buren 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
Fritzburg4.1 miles10
Wildeys6.9 miles12
Teapot Dome7.1 miles12
Lawton7.9 miles12
Lawrence8.7 miles10
Paw Paw8.8 miles12
Keeler10.2 miles10
Woodland Beach11.7 miles10

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 DecaturAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2626712The 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 624435. 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.