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Liberal, Missouri

26 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1884 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Ozark Township. It lies in ZIP code area 64762. The Survey maps it on the Liberal quadrangle. 629 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 902 feet above sea level.

Liberal within Barton County

Population over time

2 figures

Liberal fell from 759 to 629 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
2010759
2020629-130 (-17%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

16 surveys from 26 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

10 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 10 fires within 5 miles of Liberal between 2000 and 2015, burning about 206 acres in total. None 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 burning5
Equipment and vehicle use4
Smoking1

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
11 September 2000Debris and open burning2.0 acresMissouri Department of Conservationnot named
7 March 2015Debris and open burning10 acresMissouri Department of Conservation120371-00627-03072015-1509
12 February 2015Smoking20 acresMissouri Department of Conservation120370-00627-02122015-1038
8 January 2015Equipment and vehicle use2.0 acresMissouri Department of Conservation120361-00627-01082015-1240
28 January 2015Debris and open burning6.0 acresMissouri Department of Conservation120369-00627-01282015-1138
27 January 2015Debris and open burning1.0 acresMissouri Department of Conservation120368-00627-01272015-1433
23 January 2015Debris and open burning4.0 acresMissouri Department of Conservation120366-00627-01232015-1513
19 January 2015Equipment and vehicle use100 acresMissouri Department of Conservation120365-00627-01192015-1326

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Barton County

Mines and quarries near this place

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Liberal: 3 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Lead, Zinc. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Consolidated Troup Mine # 1Lead, ZincPast Producer
Jasper Quarry and MillStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Unknown - Pb.& Zn.Lead, ZincPast Producer
Unknown - Ss.Stone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Barton County

Storms near this place

45 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Liberal in 45 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 21 hail, 18 thunderstorm wind, 4 tornado, 1 funnel cloud. The reports record 1 death and 10 injuries. 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 2003Tornado (F4)Liberal1 killed, 10 hurt, $13,000,000no account filed
May 2003Tornado (F3)Liberal$5,000,000no account filed
April 2016Thunderstorm WindLiberal$15,000Straight line winds downed a few trees and caused the brick facade to fall off a building in Liberal.
April 2016Thunderstorm WindLiberal$10,000A brick structure was severely damaged by thunderstorm winds in Liberal.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindLiberal$10,000Damaging wind gusts ripped a roof off of a barn.
April 2016Thunderstorm WindLiberal$5,000A few trees were blown down and there was damaged to a metal building.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindLiberal$5,000Thunderstorm winds downed large tree limbs across roads on the west side of Liberal. Power outages were also reported.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindLiberal$5,000A few power poles were knocked over from severe thunderstorm wind gusts.
March 2010HailLiberal$5,000no account filed
May 1996Tornado (F1)Liberal$5,000no account filed
September 1998Thunderstorm WindLiberal$1,000no account filed
April 2026HailLiberal-Golf ball sized hail was reported in a mainly rural area.
September 2023HailLiberal-Quarter sized hail was reported.
September 2019Thunderstorm WindLiberal-Multiple large tree branches were reported down in a residence yard. No damage was reported.
May 2018Thunderstorm WindLiberal-Several trees and large limbs were blown down in Liberal.
May 2017Thunderstorm WindLiberal-Several medium size trees and large tree branches were blown down near Liberal.
April 2016Thunderstorm WindLiberal-Several trees were uprooted in Liberal.
May 2016HailLiberal-Quarter size hail was reported on social media in Liberal.
May 2013Flash FloodLiberal-High water was flowing over Highway K east of Liberal.
February 2011Funnel CloudLiberal-Emergency manager reported that spotters had tracked a funnel cloud in western Barton County near the Kansas and Missouri border.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindLiberal-The Emergency Manager reported multiple large trees uprooted in town. No damage was reported.
October 2007Thunderstorm WindLiberal-Several trees were downed and power was knocked out in the town of Liberal for a while.
September 2007Thunderstorm WindLiberal-A Liberal Newspaper employee observed downed large tree limbs across a county road from severe thunderstorm wind gusts.
August 2006Thunderstorm WindLiberal-Thunderstorm wind gusts downed a few large trees.
September 2005Tornado (F0)Liberal-A weak tornado briefly touched down in a rural area of northwest Barton County. This tornado was associated with a supercell thunderstorm that produced several brief tornado touchdowns in Crawford County Kansas.
March 2010HailLiberal-no account filed
June 2010HailLiberal-no account filed
June 2010HailLiberal-no account filed
May 2007HailLiberal-no account filed
June 2007HailLiberal-no account filed
October 2007HailLiberal-no account filed
October 2007HailLiberal-no account filed
October 2007Thunderstorm WindLiberal-no account filed
February 2006HailLiberal-no account filed
April 2006Thunderstorm WindLiberal-no account filed
May 2006Thunderstorm WindLiberal-no account filed
September 2005HailLiberal-no account filed
July 2004HailLiberal-no account filed
September 2003HailLiberal-no account filed
May 2003HailLiberal-no account filed
April 2001HailLiberal-no account filed
May 2001HailLiberal-no account filed
September 2000HailLiberal-no account filed
June 1998HailLiberal-no account filed
May 1995HailLiberal-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Barton 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
Wimmer2.9 miles16
Hannon4.7 miles16
Burgess5.0 miles26
Miller Brothers (historical)5.3 miles26
Verdella5.5 miles16
Ardath5.8 miles26
Oskaloosa6.8 miles26
Mindenmines7.0 miles22

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 LiberalAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q963616The 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 720953. 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.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

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.