Putnam, Alabama
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Sweet Water census division. It lies in ZIP code area 36784. It stands on Turkey Creek. The Survey maps it on the Putnam quadrangle. 172 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 226 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresPutnam fell from 193 to 172 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 | 193 | |
| 2020 | 172 | -21 (-11%) |
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
- 1978 USGS Putnam quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Meridian quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
28 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 28 fires within 5 miles of Putnam between 1994 and 2019, burning about 281 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 2 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 | 10 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Natural | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2010 | Debris and open burning | 29 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 3 September 2019 | Debris and open burning | 1.5 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | 20190903-4 |
| 28 September 2004 | Debris and open burning | 8.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 21 September 2010 | Debris and open burning | 11 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 20 September 2010 | Debris and open burning | 5.9 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 7 August 2006 | Natural | 80 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 10 August 2006 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 11 July 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Alabama Forestry Commission | 20190711-4 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
2 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Putnam in 2 storm reports between 2001 and 2021: 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Putnam | $2,000 | Several large tree limbs and one power pole were blown down from near Putnam to near Dixons Mill. Many of the limbs temporarily blocked roadways and were removed by fire department personnel. |
| March 2021 | Tornado (EF1) | Putnam | - | National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in southwest Marengo County and determined that it was consistent with an EF1 tornado, with maximum winds near 110 mph. This long track tornado began in the NWS Mobile forecast area and traveled almost 35 miles through Wayne, Choctaw, and Clarke Counties as an EF-2 tornado. It weakened to an EF-1 tornado as it crossed into Marengo County. It continued to snap and uproot numerous trees as it crossed Highway 69. The tornado dissipated in a wooded area northeast of Highway 69. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| McNeiders (historical) | 2.7 miles | 12 | |
| Hornsboro (historical) | 3.0 miles | 8 | |
| Lasca | 3.9 miles | 10 | |
| Hotamville | 5.3 miles | 8 | |
| Nanafalia | 6.6 miles | 10 | |
| Nicholsville | 6.9 miles | 10 | |
| Barrons (historical) | 7.5 miles | 8 | |
| Coxheath | 7.8 miles | 10 |
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 Putnam | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1263429 | 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 153093. 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.




