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Piedmont, Alabama

17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1900 and the latest in 2001. It stands in the Piedmont census division. It lies in ZIP code area 36272. The Survey maps it on the Piedmont quadrangle. 4,787 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 702 feet above sea level.

Piedmont within Calhoun County

On record in Piedmont

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

Population over time

4 figures

Piedmont grew from 381 to 4,787 between 1880 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.

YearPeople Change
1880381
20005,120
20104,878-242 (-5%)
20204,787-91 (-2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 17 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

293 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 293 fires within 5 miles of Piedmont between 1992 and 2020, burning about 8,580 acres in total. 7 started naturally. 164 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/incendiarism164
Debris and open burning77
Missing data/not specified/undetermined25
Recreation and ceremony9
Equipment and vehicle use8
Natural7
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Smoking1

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
9 September 2007Arson/incendiarism7.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
6 September 2019Arson/incendiarism5.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20190906-11
5 September 1997Arson/incendiarism3.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
4 September 2016Debris and open burning1.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20160904-4
4 September 1998Arson/incendiarism14 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
4 September 1995Debris and open burningunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
27 September 2006Arson/incendiarism33 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
25 September 2016Arson/incendiarism20 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20160925-11

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Calhoun County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 36 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 36 workings within 5 miles of Piedmont: 11 occurrences, 10 unknowns, 9 prospects, 5 past producers. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Manganese, Cobalt, Manganese, Aluminum. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Cowan ProspectManganese, IronProspect1949
Harbour and Thompson ProspectsNickel, Cobalt, ManganeseOccurrence
Industrial Filler Co. MineSilicaPast ProducerQuartz
Stewart MineClayProducer
Harbour PropertyCobalt, ManganeseOccurrence
Howell ProspectAluminumProspect
Mundy ProspectAluminumProspect1909
Thompson PropertyCobalt, ManganeseProspect
Toll Property,Goshen ValleyCobalt, ManganeseOccurrence
Unnamed ProspectCobalt, ManganeseOccurrence

Every working recorded in Calhoun County

Storms near this place

31 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Piedmont in 31 storm reports between 1994 and 2023: 16 hail, 11 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 2 tornado. The reports record 1 death and 6 injuries. 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
April 2000Tornado (F2)Piedmont1 killed, 6 hurt, $300,000no account filed
August 2005Tornado (F1)Piedmont$115,000National Weather Service meteorologists conducted a ground survey on Tuesday August 30, 2005. It has been determined that an F1 tornado occurred with winds estimated around 80 miles an hour in Calhoun County. The tornado touched down at approximately 353 PM CDT, just east of State Highway 9 in the Nances Creek community. This is about 6 miles southwest of Piedmont. The tornado crossed State Highway 9 moving northwest and damaged three homes along Hollingsworth Road. The tornado lifted around 356 PM CDT near Hurricane Mountain. The tornado damage path was 1.52 miles long and 30 yards wide at its widest point. Several trees were uprooted or snapped off along the path of the tornado. At least two homes and a mobile home were damaged along Hollingsworth Road.Begin: 33 50.84/85 39.70 End: 33 51.96/85 40.54
June 2007Thunderstorm WindPiedmont$100,000In the Piedmont and Vigo areas of northern Calhoun County, one home had its roof completely blown off, one barn had its roof blown off, a few homes had shingle damage, one tree fell on a mobile home, and several more trees and power lines were blown down.
May 2003HailPiedmont$100,000Very large hail fell across extreme northern Calhoun County. A majority of the hail was golf ball size and covered the ground in a few locations. A few reports were received that a couple of the pieces of hail were softball size. Most of the hail was thrown out of a storm located farther north in Cherokee County and little rain was observed with this storm.
June 1994Thunderstorm WindPiedmont$50,000A portion of the roof of a convenience store was ripped away by thunderstorm wind. Several windows were blown out and some trees were blown down in the area.
May 1996Thunderstorm WindPiedmont$25,000no account filed
June 1998Thunderstorm WindPiedmont$20,000Trees and power lines were down in Piedmont.
May 2003HailPiedmont$5,000Nickel to golf ball size hail fell in and around Piedmont.
June 2005Flash FloodPiedmont$3,000A few roads were covered with water and were temporarily impassable in Northern Calhoun County.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindPiedmont$2,000Trees and power lines were blown down around Piedmont.
July 2007Thunderstorm WindPiedmont$2,000Several trees were blown down in and around the city of Piedmont.
April 2005HailPiedmont$2,000Golf ball size hail was reported in the city of Piedmont.
June 1999Flash FloodPiedmont$2,000State Troopers closed CR 19 southwest of Piedmont. The highway had several feet of water across it with large branches seen floating by. Several inches of rain fell in a short period of time mainly in rural northern Calhoun County.
August 2023Thunderstorm WindPiedmont-Several trees uprooted and power lines downed in the Piedmont area.
April 2020Thunderstorm WindPiedmont-Several trees uprooted and power lines downed in the city of Piedmont.
July 2017Thunderstorm WindPiedmont-Several trees uprooted and power lines downed in the city of Piedmont.
June 2016Thunderstorm WindPiedmont-Several trees uprooted and power lines downed at the intersection of Highway 278 and Highway 9.
April 2016HailPiedmont-Large hail reported in the city of Piedmont.
April 2016HailPiedmont-Large hail reported in the city of Piedmont. This was from a second round of thunderstorms that moved across Piedmont.
July 2012Thunderstorm WindPiedmont-A dozen large trees were reported down along Highway 278 in the Piedmont area.
April 2006HailPiedmont-Penny to quarter sized hail fell for several minutes around Piedmont.
May 2005HailPiedmont-Nickel size hail fell in the Piedmont area.
May 2004HailPiedmont-Nickel size hail was reported in Piedmont.
April 2002HailPiedmont-Quarter size hail fell in the city of Piedmont.
April 2001HailPiedmont-Three quarter inch diameter hail fell across northern Calhoun County from near Webster Chapel to near Piedmont.
April 2017HailPiedmont-no account filed
March 2013HailPiedmont-no account filed
May 2011HailPiedmont-no account filed
March 2011HailPiedmont-no account filed
April 2006HailPiedmont-no account filed
June 2006HailPiedmont-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Calhoun 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
Greenwood1.9 miles17
Ladiga2.3 miles17
Goshen (historical)2.4 miles17
Vigo2.9 miles17
Old Goshen Center (historical)3.1 miles17
Philadelphia3.6 miles17
Piedmont Springs3.6 miles16
Dailey (historical)3.7 miles17

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 PiedmontAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q79213The 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 160373. 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.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

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.