Elrod, Alabama

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Elrod-Moores Bridge-Echola census division. It lies in ZIP code area 35458. It stands on Springer Slough. The Survey maps it on the Elrod quadrangle. It stands 246 feet above sea level.

Elrod within Tuscaloosa County

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 10 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.

1953 USGS Birmingham quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1956 USGS Birmingham quadrangle1:250000
1957 USGS Birmingham quadrangle1:250000
1967 USGS Elrod quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1984 USGS Tuscaloosa quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

Fires near this place

65 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 65 fires within 5 miles of Elrod between 1994 and 2020, burning about 782 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 23 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/incendiarism	23
Debris and open burning	19
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	7
Railroad operations and maintenance	7
Equipment and vehicle use	6
Recreation and ceremony	2
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
5 September 1995	Recreation and ceremony	2.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
23 September 1999	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
19 September 2013	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	NWR-20130919-002
15 September 2013	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	4.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	NWR-20130915-001
11 September 2020	Debris and open burning	5.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	20200911-1
22 August 2008	Debris and open burning	3.8 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	COUNTY ROAD 19, AL
21 August 2007	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
17 August 1999	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Tuscaloosa County

Storms near this place

16 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Elrod in 16 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 6 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 3 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
September 2005	Tornado (F1)	Elrod	$14,000	National Weather Service meteorologists performed extensive aerial and ground surveys across northern Tuscaloosa County. It has been determined that a tornado produced damage along a large stretch of the Sipsey River Basin. The tornado touched down at approximately 355 PM CDT near County Road 140 just east of Elrod. The tornado traveled northeast along the Sipsey River, crossed County Road 21, crossed State Highway 171, and lifted just east of County Road 35 around 417 PM CDT. A large majority of the damage was minor and limited to tree damage. Numerous trees were snapped off or uprooted along the Sipsey River. The tornado has been rated an F1 on the Fujita scale. The tornado damage path was 13.8 miles long and 100 yards wide at its widest point. This was the same thunderstorm cell that produced the brief tornado touchdown in rural southeastern Pickens County. This tornado was produced by the remnants of Hurricane Rita. Begin: 33 15.16/87 46.94 End: 33 25.98/87 41.79
April 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Elrod	$2,000	A few trees were blown down in a couple of locations in western Tuscaloosa County.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Elrod	$1,000	Multiple trees were downed and outbuildings were damaged along Foxfire Road.
April 2005	Hail	Elrod	$1,000	Penny size hail was reported in the Sipsey Valley area near Elrod.
April 2021	Hail	Elrod	-	Golf Ball size hail in the town of Elrod.
May 2021	Tornado (EFU)	Elrod	-	National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed an area in Tuscaloosa County and could not find any observable damage. However, there were several videos indicating a brief and weak tornado occurred near Buhl, AL. One close-range video indicated rising cyclonic motion. Location, time, width, and path length were estimated from video footage and radar data.
February 2020	Flash Flood	Elrod	-	Numerous roads flooded and impassable across southern Tuscaloosa County.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Elrod	-	Several trees uprooted in the town of Elrod.
September 2012	Flash Flood	Elrod	-	Heavy rainfall fell for several hours in the Elrod community, leading to Park Road being washed out.
May 2006	Flash Flood	Elrod	-	A portion of US 82 near the Pickens County line became washed out and was temporarily closed, due to heavy rain.
March 2005	Hail	Elrod	-	The same thunderstorm that produced the hail across Pickens County moved into western Tuscaloosa. Just as the storm split...nickel to quarter size hail fell in and around the Elrod community associated with the right member of the splitting storm.
May 2001	Hail	Elrod	-	Dime size hail was reported in Elrod.
February 2000	Hail	Elrod	-	Dime size hail was reported near the Pickens County and Tuscaloosa County border on US 82.
July 1997	Lightning	Elrod	-	Lightning killed eight head of cattle in Elrod, in the western part of the county. The cows were all huddled under a tree that was apparently hit by lightning.
June 2013	Hail	Elrod	-	no account filed
September 2005	Tornado (F0)	Elrod	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Tuscaloosa 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
Buhl	2.1 miles	10
Holman	2.3 miles	10
Western Hills Estates	4.1 miles	18
Western Hills	4.2 miles	18
Forest Green Park	4.2 miles	15
Forest Green	4.8 miles	15
Coker Heights	5.2 miles	15
Bel Air Estates	5.6 miles	18

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 Elrod	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q5367347	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 117963. 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.