Ranburne, Alabama
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Ranburne census division. It lies in ZIP code area 36273. It stands on Little Lost Creek. The Survey maps it on the Bowdon West quadrangle. 422 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,020 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresRanburne grew from 409 to 422 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 | 409 | |
| 2020 | 422 | +13 (+3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 16 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.
- 1889 USGS Tallapoosa quadrangle1:125000
- 1892 USGS Tallapoosa quadrangle1:125000
- 1897 USGS Tallapoosa quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1953 USGS Atlanta quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Atlanta quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Atlanta quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS Bowdon West quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1975 USGS Bowdon West quadrangle1:24000
- 1981 USGS Anniston quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
98 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 98 fires within 5 miles of Ranburne between 1993 and 2020, burning about 582 acres in total. None started naturally. 35 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 | 37 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 35 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 7 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | NER-20140908-001 |
| 8 September 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 8 September 1995 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 5 September 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 8.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | CO RD 659, AL |
| 24 September 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | 419 CO. ROAD 659, AL |
| 23 September 2018 | Debris and open burning | 3.5 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2019CARROLL003 |
| 21 September 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | 20190921-22 |
| 18 September 1999 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
9 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Ranburne: 8 past producers, 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gold. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballinger Prospect | Gold | Occurrence | ||
| Gold Ridge Mine | Gold | Past Producer | 1908 | |
| Gold Ridge Mine | Gold | Past Producer | Vein | |
| Gold Ridge Mine | Gold | Past Producer | ||
| Middle Brook Mine | Gold | Past Producer | ||
| Middlebrook Mine | Gold | Past Producer | Gold | |
| Sutherland Mine | Gold | Past Producer | Gold | |
| Sutherland Mine | Gold | Past Producer | ||
| Wise Mine | Gold | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
7 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ranburne in 7 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 lightning, 1 flash flood. The reports record 1 death and 1 injury. 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 2025 | Flash Flood | Ranburne | 1 killed, 1 hurt | Heavy rain fell over Cleburne County for several hours during the early morning of August 3. Rainfall totals across the southern part of the county between Ranburne and Heflin were generally up to 5-8, with as high as 8-10 estimated by radar in the area of Turkey Heaven Mountain and corroborated by local reports. Numerous roadways were flooded or washed out, along with a bridge on CR 640. Impacted roadways included CR 10 at CR 635, CR 41, CR 633, and CR 640 all around Knokes Creek. Around 4:40 am CDT, a vehicle became stranded in high water on CR 10 at CR 635, and the occupant needed to be rescued. Around 6:20 am CDT, another vehicle became stuck in floodwaters along CR 41. Two occupants of the vehicle were swept away. One was rescued with minor injuries, while the second was found deceased a couple hours later.||Emergency management, police, and fire provided reports of other flooded or washed out roads, which included CR 10 near Pineywood Creek, CR 75 at CR 42 along Sheep Creek, CR 19 at CR 118, CR 36 at Dynne Creek near Greens Chapel, CR 49 at the Tallapoosa River near Abernathy, and CR 49 at CR 48 near Macedonia.||Streams flowing northward into the Tallapoosa River resulted in the river rising to minor flood stage near Heflin during the morning and midday hours. |
| May 2003 | Lightning | Ranburne | $70,000 | Lightning struck a home on Webb Drive and the resulting fire damaged 50 percent of the home. Another lightning strike caused minor damage to a home on SR 46. |
| June 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ranburne | $3,000 | Several trees were reported down in the Abel Community. |
| August 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ranburne | $1,000 | Trees were blown down near Ranburne. |
| February 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ranburne | - | A power line was downed along Stateline Road. |
| May 2003 | Hail | Ranburne | - | Quarter size hail was reported in Ranburne. |
| May 1998 | Hail | Ranburne | - | Dime size hail was reported in the town of Ranburne. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Union Hill | 2.7 miles | 14 | |
| Hightower | 2.8 miles | 14 | |
| Macedonia | 4.0 miles | 16 | |
| Trickem | 4.2 miles | 14 | |
| Lecta | 6.5 miles | 14 | |
| Hopewell | 7.8 miles | 15 | |
| Abernathy | 9.4 miles | 15 | |
| Bell Mills | 9.4 miles | 14 |
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 Ranburne | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q66536 | 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 153111. 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.








