Gordo, Alabama
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Gordo census division. It lies in ZIP code area 35466. It stands on Long Branch. The Survey maps it on the Gordo quadrangle. 1,628 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 282 feet above sea level.
On record in Gordo
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
Old Jaillisted 1974
Population over time
2 figuresGordo fell from 1,750 to 1,628 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 | 1,750 | |
| 2020 | 1,628 | -122 (-7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 10 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 Birmingham quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS Birmingham quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Birmingham quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Gordo quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS Tuscaloosa quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
75 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 75 fires within 5 miles of Gordo between 1994 and 2016, burning about 894 acres in total. None started naturally. 20 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 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 20 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 14 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 5 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 September 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 2.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 5 September 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 5 September 1995 | Debris and open burning | 1.5 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 28 September 2000 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 28 September 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 26 September 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 2.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 12 September 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | NWR-20130912-001 |
| 17 August 1999 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
32 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Gordo in 32 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 13 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2008 | Tornado (EF1) | Gordo | $50,000 | The tornado touched down between Gordo and the Tuscaloosa County line, near the intersection of Ben Elmore Road and CR-33. From there, it travelled east-northeast before crossing into Tuscaloosa County. A barn and several old chicken houses on CR-33 east of Gordo sustained heavy damage. |
| April 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gordo | $30,000 | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Flash Flood | Gordo | $25,000 | Heavy rains forced the evacuation of between 7 and 10 families from their homes off US 82 in Gordo. Heavy rain also damaged a portion of Preacher Street. |
| May 1998 | Tornado (F0) | Gordo | $25,000 | no account filed |
| April 1998 | Tornado (F3) | Gordo | $15,000 | no account filed |
| April 2011 | Tornado (EF1) | Gordo | $11,000 | This tornado developed along a Quasi-Linear Convective System in far eastern Pickens County, 5.5 miles south southeast of Gordo and moved northeastward for 3.46 miles. It crossed into Tuscaloosa County just to the west of Holman, south of AL Hwy 140. This tornado continued for almost 19 miles in Tuscaloosa County before dissipating 2.5 miles east northeast of Samantha. The tornado touched down east of AL Hwy 63, along Grover Plate Rd where it uprooted many hardwood trees. The tornado continued to cause tree damage as it moved northeast and approached the Tuscaloosa County line. The tornado damage in Pickens County was consistent with an EF1 rating and winds of 90 mph. |
| October 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gordo | $10,000 | A tree fell on a vehicle. |
| May 1998 | Hail | Gordo | $10,000 | Golf ball size hail was reported by storm spotters, near US 82 and SR 86. |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gordo | $8,000 | no account filed |
| November 1997 | Hail | Gordo | $6,000 | Golf ball size hail was reported in Gordo, in the eastern part of the county. |
| March 2000 | Hail | Gordo | $5,000 | Golfball size hail was reported near Gordo. |
| March 2000 | Hail | Gordo | $4,000 | Quarter to half dollar size hail was reported in Gordo. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gordo | $1,000 | Several trees were blown down on CR-57, north of Gordo. |
| May 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gordo | $1,000 | Several large limbs were blown down onto AL-86, near Gordo. |
| April 2005 | Hail | Gordo | $1,000 | Penny size hail was reported near Gordo. |
| April 2005 | Hail | Gordo | $1,000 | Penny size hail was reported in Gordo. |
| March 2025 | Hail | Gordo | - | Social media photos of half dollar to ping pong ball size hail in Gordo. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gordo | - | Several trees were downed in the Gordo area. |
| December 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gordo | - | Trees and power lines were downed on County Road 9 near Gordo. |
| June 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gordo | - | Trees uprooted and power lines downed along Mars Hill Road. |
| June 2023 | Hail | Gordo | - | Baseball size hail reported southwest of Gordo with several car windows shattered and destroyed. |
| April 2021 | Hail | Gordo | - | Large hail reported near the town of Gordo. |
| March 2021 | Hail | Gordo | - | Tennis ball size hail reported near the town of Gordo. |
| May 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gordo | - | Several trees uprooted in the town of Gordo. |
| April 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gordo | - | Several trees uprooted and snapped in the town of Gordo. |
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gordo | - | Several trees uprooted and power lines downed near the intersection of Highway 82 and 2nd Street Southwest in the town of Gordo. |
| January 2015 | Flash Flood | Gordo | - | Road washed out on Old Vienna Road near the intersection of Dr. Kirk Road. Several other roads flooded across the county. |
| September 2012 | Flash Flood | Gordo | - | Approximately 7 to 10 inches of water was reported covering Highway 82 in downtown Gordo. The bridges at 1st Avenue East and Ben Elmore Road were washed out. Also, twenty-five families had to be evacuated from their homes in the area. |
| May 2001 | Hail | Gordo | - | Dime size hail fell in Gordo. One large tree was blown down blocking a road. |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gordo | - | Trees were blown down in Gordo. |
| March 2015 | Hail | Gordo | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Gordo | - | 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.
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 Gordo | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q67487 | 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 119169. 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.




