Ethelsville, Alabama
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Ethelsville census division. It lies in ZIP code area 35461. The Survey maps it on the Ethelsville quadrangle. 49 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 364 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresEthelsville fell from 81 to 49 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 | 81 | |
| 2020 | 49 | -32 (-40%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 12 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 West Point quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS West Point quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS West Point quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1966 USGS Ethelsville quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1984 USGS West Point quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
76 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 76 fires within 5 miles of Ethelsville between 1994 and 2019, burning about 600 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 14 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 22 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 14 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 14 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 7 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6 |
| Natural | 5 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 28 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | NWR-20130908-001 |
| 6 September 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 48 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 3 September 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 2.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 28 September 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 10 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 21 September 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 19 September 2000 | Smoking | under an acre | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 17 September 1998 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 15 September 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
23 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ethelsville in 23 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 9 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 4 tornado, 1 funnel cloud. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2005 | Tornado (F0) | Ethelsville | $175,000 | National Weather Service Meteorologist surveyed the damage in Pickens County and determined a weak tornado occurred. The tornado damage was rated an F0. The tornado first touched down just west ofCR 75 near the Pine Grove Community. The tornado tracked east northeast through the Pine Grove Community, where one home suffered extensive damage from fallen and uprooted trees. The tornado continued almost parallel to Will Jones Road where two homes sustained significant damage. The tornado ended near the intersection of Will Jones Road and Moorehead Road just south of the McShanCommunity. Numerous trees were blown down or uprooted along the path and a few outbuildings weredestroyed. The tornado was on the ground from 954 pm CST until 1004 pm CST. The tornado damage path was approximately 7 miles long and 150 yards wide at its widest point.Begin: 33 20.544/88 16.529 End: 33 21.254/88 09.311 |
| April 2010 | Hail | Ethelsville | $10,000 | no account filed |
| August 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ethelsville | $5,000 | Trees down along County Road 30. |
| March 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ethelsville | $5,000 | A few trees were blown down just south of SR 96 and Fields Road. |
| April 1999 | Hail | Ethelsville | $5,000 | Golfball size hail fell in Ethelsville. |
| December 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ethelsville | $4,000 | Several trees were blown down between Ethelsville and Carrollton. |
| May 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ethelsville | $4,000 | Several power lines were blown down along CR 75 near Ethelsville. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ethelsville | $1,000 | A few trees were blown down near the Ethelsville community. |
| March 2026 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ethelsville | - | Several trees were blown down along County Road 75. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Ethelsville | - | Quarter-size hail was reported in the Ethelsville area. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ethelsville | - | Several trees were downed in the Ethelsville area. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Ethelsville | - | Social media images showed quarter-size hail near Ethelsville. |
| June 2023 | Hail | Ethelsville | - | Baseball size hail reported in Ethelsville. |
| April 2020 | Tornado (EF0) | Ethelsville | - | National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northwest Pickens County and determined that it was consistent with an EF0 tornado, with maximum winds near 75 mph.||The tornado formed near the intersection of Willie Wright Road and St Johns Road, about three miles south-southeast of Ethelsville. The tornado tracked northeast almost parallel to Willie Wright Road and dissipated near Mount Moriah Jones Road. Several large tree limbs and trees were downed along the path. The tornado affected mostly rural locations. |
| March 2016 | Tornado (EF1) | Ethelsville | - | National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northwest Pickens County just north of Ethelsville and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF-1 tornado. Maximum winds were estimated to be around 95 mph. ||The tornado touched down near County Road 75 just south of Highway 34. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted along County Road 75, and there was some minor roof and siding damage to a single residence. The tornado tracked east-northeast in an area that was not accessible by vehicle. The next damage area was along Mineral-Springs Church Road just south of Highway 34, where numerous trees were uprooted and snapped. The tornado continued eastward along Highway 34 and produced loss of shingles to a home and destroyed several outbuildings. The tornado crossed Shockley Road and produced considerable damage to a metal roof of a wood framed home and damage to several outbuildings. The tornado lifted just east of this damage. |
| March 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ethelsville | - | Several trees and powerlines were blown down in the town of Ethelsville. |
| July 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ethelsville | - | A self standing cell tower was knocked down along with approximately 100 trees in the Mcshan and Coal Fire Communities. |
| March 2005 | Hail | Ethelsville | - | A supercell thunderstorm moved across central Pickens County and produced hail along most of its path. The hail size ranged from dime to nickel size and covered the ground in several locations. |
| March 2005 | Hail | Ethelsville | - | Penny size hail was reported west of Ethelsville near the Alabama and Mississippi state line. |
| October 2004 | Hail | Ethelsville | - | Penny to nickle size hail fell across western Pickens County near the Pine Grove and Macedonia communities. |
| November 2002 | Tornado (F0) | Ethelsville | - | An F1 tornado moved out of Mississippi into Alabama about 4.3 miles west-southwest of Ethelsville. The weak tornado was the fifth tornado of the evening in Alabama and moved across mostly wooded and clear cut areas downing a few trees. The tornado damage in Alabama was only F0.Beg: 33 24.268/88 17.425 End: 33 24.682/88 15.352 |
| November 2001 | Funnel Cloud | Ethelsville | - | Numerous public reports of funnel clouds were received in extreme northern Pickens County, just north of Ethelsville. |
| July 1995 | Hail | Ethelsville | - | Hail the size of dimes was reported three miles west of Ethelsville in extreme western Pickens 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.
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 Ethelsville | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q66990 | 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 118045. 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.




