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.
Population over time
2 figuresDecatur 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1,819 | |
| 2020 | 1,651 | -168 (-9%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 12 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.
- 1944 USGS Marcellus quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1946 USGS Marcellus quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Grand Rapids quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Grand Rapids quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Grand Rapids quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1981 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:24000
- 1982 USGS Kalamazoo quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
14 since 2003Regional 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 burning | 8 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Natural | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 September 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | DECATUR-HAMILTON FD 0000055 - 2019 |
| 16 June 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 15 June 2003 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | VAN BUREN 0005 |
| 30 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | VAN BUREN 0007 |
| 30 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | VAN BUREN 0006 |
| 30 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | VAN BUREN 0001 |
| 30 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | VAN BUREN 0003 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
19 since 1994Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Decatur | $50,000 | Several trees were uprooted and snapped off near Decatur and large hail was reported as well. |
| August 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Decatur | $50,000 | no account filed |
| November 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Decatur | $25,000 | Several trees were blown down across parts of Van Buren county. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Decatur | $20,000 | There were several reports of downed trees and limbs. |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Decatur | $15,000 | Large trees were blown down in Decatur. |
| September 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Decatur | $10,000 | Several trees were blown down near Decatur. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Decatur | $10,000 | Several trees were blown down in southeastern Van Buren county from around Decatur to north of Paw Paw. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Decatur | $10,000 | Trees were downed by gusty thunderstorm winds in Decatur. |
| May 2001 | Hail | Decatur | $10,000 | no account filed |
| October 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Decatur | $5,000 | Several trees were blown down by wind gusts estimated at 60 mph. |
| October 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Decatur | $3,000 | Two trees were blown down about ten miles northwest of the town of Decatur, reported by local law enforcement. |
| April 1994 | Hail | Decatur | $500 | Hail of one-inch in diameter damaged several vehicle windshields. Eaton County |
| March 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Decatur | - | Several trees snapped. |
| February 2024 | Hail | Decatur | - | Three quarters inch diameter hail was reported by the public three miles southeast of Decatur. |
| February 2024 | Hail | Decatur | - | A trained spotter reported one inch diameter hail as well as wind gusts estimated at up to 70 mph. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Decatur | - | A peak wind gust to 60 mph was reported in Decatur. |
| May 2018 | Hail | Decatur | - | Quarter sized diameter hail was reported near Decatur. |
| August 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Decatur | - | Trees blown down by thunderstorm winds. |
| April 1994 | Hail | Decatur | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fritzburg | 4.1 miles | 10 | |
| Wildeys | 6.9 miles | 12 | |
| Teapot Dome | 7.1 miles | 12 | |
| Lawton | 7.9 miles | 12 | |
| Lawrence | 8.7 miles | 10 | |
| Paw Paw | 8.8 miles | 12 | |
| Keeler | 10.2 miles | 10 | |
| Woodland Beach | 11.7 miles | 10 |
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 Decatur | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2626712 | 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 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.






