Emelle, Alabama
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Gainesville census division. It lies in ZIP code area 35459. The Survey maps it on the Emelle quadrangle. 32 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 259 feet above sea level.
On record in Emelle
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Oakhurstlisted 1987
Population over time
2 figuresEmelle fell from 53 to 32 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 | 53 | |
| 2020 | 32 | -21 (-40%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 8 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.
- 1953 USGS Meridian quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Meridian quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Meridian quadrangle1:250000
- 1974 USGS Emelle quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS De Kalb quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
13 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Emelle between 1995 and 2015, burning about 105 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 | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 September 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 22 June 1998 | Equipment and vehicle use | 20 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 6 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.5 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 2 April 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 6.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 9 March 2004 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 8 March 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Mississippi Forestry Commission | MS0 1010-2350308028 |
| 8 March 2002 | Debris and open burning | 50 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 8 February 2000 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
7 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Emelle in 7 storm reports between 1998 and 2023: 3 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2023 | Tornado (EF2) | Emelle | 1 hurt | National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northern Sumter County and determined that it was consistent with an EF2 tornado, with maximum winds near 120 mph. This tornado began near Sumter Road 24 uprooting trees. The tornado continued east-northeast along Sumter 24 where it destroyed a grain bin near Ramsey Lane along with snapping and uprooting a few more softwood trees. The tornado moved through the town of Emelle where it caused damage to several roofs in the community, along with uprooting and snapping numerous trees. The tornado crossed Highway 74 and took the roof off of a home and destroyed an outbuilding near the intersection of Highway 74 and Sunlight Church Road. The tornado crossed Highway 39 and destroyed a mobile home on Hodges Place Road. The tornado lifted just east of Sumter 21, uprooting and snapping a few more trees along the way. |
| February 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Emelle | $3,000 | no account filed |
| April 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Emelle | $2,000 | Trees were knocked down on AL Hwy 17. |
| January 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Emelle | - | Several trees uprooted in the town of Emelle. |
| April 2001 | Hail | Emelle | - | Dime size hail fell near Emelle. |
| April 1998 | Hail | Emelle | - | Dime size hail was reported in Emelle. |
| September 2009 | Hail | Emelle | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bethel (historical) | 1.9 miles | 8 | |
| Sledge | 2.1 miles | 8 | |
| Hamner | 2.6 miles | 8 | |
| Sumterville | 4.2 miles | 13 | |
| McCainville | 7.5 miles | 13 | |
| Boyd | 7.6 miles | 8 | |
| Payneville | 8.2 miles | 8 | |
| Geiger | 9.6 miles | 8 |
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 Emelle | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q66719 | 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 155060. 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.




