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Dora, Alabama

24 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Dora census division. It lies in ZIP code area 35062. It lies near Kershaw Hollow. The Survey maps it on the Dora quadrangle. 2,297 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 394 feet above sea level.

Dora within Walker County

On record in Dora

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

Surveyed buildings and structures 5 records

Population over time

3 figures

Dora fell from 2,413 to 2,297 between 2000 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
20002,413
20102,025-388 (-16%)
20202,297+272 (+13%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 24 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.

Photographs

2 photographs,

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Old Methodist Church, Walker County Road 81, Dora, Walker County, AL
Old Methodist Church, Walker County Road 81, Dora, Walker County, AL
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress
Dora Community, County Road 81, Dora, Walker County, AL
Dora Community, County Road 81, Dora, Walker County, AL
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress

Fires near this place

295 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 295 fires within 5 miles of Dora between 1994 and 2020, burning about 2,907 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 133 were 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
Arson/incendiarism133
Debris and open burning108
Missing data/not specified/undetermined21
Recreation and ceremony15
Railroad operations and maintenance7
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Natural3
Other causes3
Equipment and vehicle use2

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
9 September 2016Arson/incendiarism2.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20160909-12
6 September 1998Arson/incendiarism10 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
6 September 1995Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
5 September 1998Arson/incendiarism21 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
5 September 1998Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
5 September 1995Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
4 September 2000Arson/incendiarism10 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
4 September 1999Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Walker County

Storms near this place

10 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Dora in 10 storm reports between 2002 and 2024: 5 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 flash flood. 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
November 2002Tornado (F1)Dora$400,000The Dora Tornado, the seventh tornado of the evening, began at 9:38 pm, when the tornado touched down on the banks of the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River southwest of Dora. The initial touchdown was in an area of open fields and woods and the first structural damage occurred as the tornado reached the southwest side of Dora. Trees were downed with a good deal of roof damage to homes as the tornado traveled through the middle of Dora. Traveling northeast the tornado damaged a number of structures in Dora, before ending fairly abruptly on the northeast side of town at 9:47 pm.The total path length was 4.3 miles, with a width of 300 yards. No deaths were reported, and any injuries were minor. This tornado was rated an F1.Beg: 33 42.221/87 08.654 End: 33 44.096/87 04.761
May 2008Thunderstorm WindDora$3,000Several trees were blown down on Darty Hollow Road.
May 2024HailDora-Hail up to nickel size fell in Dora.
April 2021HailDora-Quarter size hail reported in the town of Dora.
October 2021Thunderstorm WindDora-Multiple trees uprooted and power lines downed in the city of Dora.
October 2021Flash FloodDora-Several roads flooded and impassable in the city of Dora.
May 2019Thunderstorm WindDora-Several trees uprooted along Sharon Boulevard in the town of Dora.
June 2019HailDora-no account filed
August 2008HailDora-no account filed
April 2006HailDora-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Walker 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
Oakahalla1.2 miles24
Doliska1.3 miles24
Burnwell1.4 miles24
Sloss1.7 miles21
Red Star2.0 miles24
Samoset2.0 miles23
Wyatt2.1 miles24
Lorton2.4 miles21

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 DoraAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q79234The 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 155055. 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.