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Oak Level, Alabama

16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Fruithurst census division. It lies in ZIP code area 36262. It stands on Wallace Creek. The Survey maps it on the Oak Level quadrangle.

Oak Level within Cleburne County

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 16 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.

Fires near this place

515 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 515 fires within 5 miles of Oak Level between 1992 and 2020, burning about 20,631 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 373 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/incendiarism373
Debris and open burning121
Missing data/not specified/undetermined14
Recreation and ceremony3
Natural3
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
8 September 1999Arson/incendiarismunder an acreNational Forests in AlabamaZONE ABC #5
8 September 1999Arson/incendiarism3.5 acresNational Forests in AlabamaZONE ABC #4
7 September 2002Arson/incendiarism8.8 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
4 September 1999Arson/incendiarism20 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
4 September 1999Arson/incendiarism42 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
30 September 2007Arson/incendiarism20 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
25 September 2019Arson/incendiarismunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commission20190925-6
2 September 2018Arson/incendiarism35 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20180902-4

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Cleburne County

Storms near this place

4 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Oak Level in 4 storm reports between 2003 and 2023: 2 hail, 1 tornado, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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
August 2023Thunderstorm WindOak Level-Several trees uprooted in the Piney Woods area.
March 2018Tornado (EF1)Oak Level-National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northern Cleburne County and determined that the damage was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum sustained winds near 100 mph. This tornado began in Calhoun County just west of Highway 431 and crossed into Cleburne County just south of County Road 534. The tornado continued east-southeast across a very rural portion of the county where it snapped or uprooted hundreds of softwood trees. The tornado crossed into the state of Georgia near County Road 57.
July 2018HailOak Level-Large hail covering the ground.
May 2003HailOak Level-Penny size hail was reported in the Talladega National Forest just west of Oak Level.

Every storm recorded in Cleburne 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
Piney Woods3.0 miles16
Grantley3.6 miles16
Mars Hill4.3 miles16
Borden Wheeler Springs4.5 miles17
Coldwater4.8 miles16
Liberty Hill5.0 miles16
Borden Springs5.6 miles17
Bethel6.2 miles16

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 160278. 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.