Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Grafton, Ohio

16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1901 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Grafton Village. It lies in ZIP code area 44044. The Survey maps it on the Grafton quadrangle. 5,895 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 804 feet above sea level.

Grafton within Lorain County

Population over time

2 figures

Grafton fell from 6,636 to 5,895 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. 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	6,636
2020	5,895	-741 (-11%)

Then and now

1901 to 1986

The same ground, surveyed 85 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Grafton, surveyed 1986

Topographic sheet of Grafton, surveyed 1901

Compare 1901 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

16 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.

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,332 shown

Museums hold 1,332 specimens collected within 10 miles of Grafton between 1853 and 1975: 634 Animalia, 516 Fungi, 150 Plantae, 15 Protozoa, 13 Chromista, 4 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. E. Recksecker, A. E. Ricksecker, A. M. Evans and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Cantharellus minor Peck	1896	F.D. Kelsey	Near Oberlin
Polyporus arcularius (Batsch) Fr.	1896	F.D. Kelsey
Dryopteris spinulosa (O.F.Müll.) Watt	1899	Ricksecker, A.E.	Wood 4 miles south of Oberlin.
Ammocrypta pellucida (Putnam, 1863)	1853	Baird, Spencer Fullerton	Black River, below falls at Elyria, Ohio
Etheostoma blennioides Rafinesque, 1819	1853	S. Baird	Black River Elgria Ohio (above falls)
Etheostoma caeruleum Storer, 1845	1853	S. Baird	Elyria, Ohio
Etheostoma maculatum Kirtland, 1840	1853	S. Baird	Elyria, Ohio
Accipiter cooperii (Bonaparte, 1828)	1894	Dawson, W. L. (William Leon)	Oberlin, Lorain, Ohio, USA
Albugo candida (Pers. ex J.F.Gmel.) Roussel	1894	F.D. Kelsey	Oberlin
Biscogniauxia atropunctata (Schwein.) Pouzar	1894	F. D. Kelsey	Oberlin.
Botrychium virginianum subsp. virginianum	1894	Dick, W.M.	Oberlin.
Bryum caespiticium Hedw.	1894	F. D. Kelsey

All 1,332 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms nearby

27 since 1994

The National Weather Service names Grafton in 27 storm reports between 1994 and 2026: 13 hail, 11 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 funnel cloud. The reports record 1 injury. 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 1996	Lightning	Grafton	1 hurt	no account filed
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	$50,000	Building collapsed at 2000 Avon Belden Road in Grafton area.
August 2023	Tornado (EF0)	Grafton	$50,000	A tornado with estimated peak winds of 85 mph occurred about three-miles north of Lagrange. This tornado began behind a residence on OH Route 301, where it snapped the tops of several trees, removed the porch roof completely, and removed portions of the home's roof. As the tornado moved southeastward, it caused significant damage to over a dozen trees, including several mature maple trees. One of these trees fell onto a another home, punctured its roof in several places, and damaged multiple vehicles. The tornado crossed OH Route 301 and damaged additional trees before dissipating soon thereafter.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	$50,000	Thunderstorm winds downed many trees in Grafton and nearby Eaton Township. At least one house was damaged by trees.
January 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	$15,000	Several trees and a few utility poles were reported down.
September 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	$15,000	Thunderstorm winds downed several trees in Elyria and a few large limbs in Grafton.
July 2013	Hail	Grafton	$10,000	The public reported golf ball size hail in Grafton.
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	$5,000	Thunderstorm winds downed a tree near Grafton and another just east of Eaton Estates. Power outages were reported in the area.
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	$5,000	Trees downed.
October 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	$3,000	A tree and large limb was reported down.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	$2,000	A few large limbs were reported down.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	$2,000	A few large limbs were reported down.
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	$1,000	Trees were downed.
April 2026	Hail	Grafton	-	Hail up to half dollar-size about two-miles west of Grafton.
April 2026	Hail	Grafton	-	Hail up to quarter-size in Grafton.
May 2025	Hail	Grafton	-	Hail up to quarter-size in Grafton.
April 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	-	Large trees downed in Grafton.
March 2020	Hail	Grafton	-	Trained spotter reported quarter-size hail in Grafton.
April 2011	Hail	Grafton	-	Quarter sized hail was observed.
May 2007	Hail	Grafton	-	Penny size hail was observed.
May 2006	Hail	Grafton	-	Penny size hail was observed.
June 2006	Hail	Grafton	-	Penny size hail was observed.
April 2005	Hail	Grafton	-	Penny size hail was observed.
May 2004	Hail	Grafton	-	Penny size hail was observed.
May 2001	Funnel Cloud	Grafton	-	A funnel cloud was reported over the Grafton Correctional Facility. No damage occurred.
June 2000	Hail	Grafton	-	Dime size hail was observed at a golf course just outside of Grafton.
June 1994	Hail	Grafton	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lorain 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Kingsleys Corners	1.9 miles	16
Belden	2.9 miles	11
Brentwood Lake	3.2 miles	16
Eaton	3.4 miles	16
Eaton Estates	3.6 miles	16
Laporte	4.2 miles	16
Lagrange	4.2 miles	11
North Eaton	4.8 miles	20

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 Grafton	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1028075	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 1064744. 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.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

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.