BlockKensal, North Dakota
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1900 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Kensal City. It lies in ZIP code area 58455. The Survey maps it on the Kensal quadrangle. 146 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,545 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresKensal fell from 163 to 146 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 | 163 | |
| 2020 | 146 | -17 (-10%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 10 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.
- 1900 USGS Pingree quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1951 USGS Kensal quadrangle1:24000
- 1952 USGS New Rockford quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1956 USGS New Rockford quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS New Rockford quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Cooperstown quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
8 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Kensal between 1999 and 2019, burning about 202 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 burning | 5 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 August 2004 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge | VEEN |
| 3 May 2019 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | KEN G |
| 3 May 1999 | Debris and open burning | 140 acres | Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge | G8 |
| 24 May 2008 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Arrowwood Wetland Management District | TIMM |
| 29 April 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 8.0 acres | Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge | G1A |
| 27 April 2006 | Debris and open burning | 30 acres | Arrowwood Wetland Management District | FLORHAUG WPA 06 |
| 31 October 2005 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge | PARTY |
| 26 October 2005 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | not named |
Storms near this place
8 since 2011Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Kensal in 8 storm reports between 2011 and 2025: 6 thunderstorm wind, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kensal | $300,000 | An insulated pole barn style shop building was destroyed at a farmstead east-northeast of Kensal. Additional damage included a collapsed portion of a steel grain bin roof and a grain auger blown over. Several large tree limbs were snapped. |
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kensal | $75,000 | Numerous trees were uprooted in the city of Kensal. Two grain hoppers were blown over at the Kensal Farmers Elevator. |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kensal | $2,000 | A large tree was uprooted. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kensal | $2,000 | A street light was bent at the base. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kensal | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated by the public. |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kensal | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Kensal | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Kensal | - | 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.
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 Kensal | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2442202 | 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 1029731. 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.