Safford, Alabama
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in the Safford census division. It lies in ZIP code area 36773. It stands on English Creek. The Survey maps it on the Safford quadrangle. It stands 230 feet above sea level.
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 Montgomery quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS Montgomery quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Montgomery quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS Safford quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1986 USGS Selma quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
31 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 31 fires within 5 miles of Safford between 1994 and 2020, burning about 420 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 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 | 12 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.8 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 21 September 2005 | Debris and open burning | 22 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 21 September 2005 | Debris and open burning | 4.1 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 19 September 2019 | Debris and open burning | 6.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | 20190919-10 |
| 13 September 1997 | Debris and open burning | 1.6 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 10 August 2010 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 8.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 2 July 2000 | Smoking | 5.5 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 24 June 2000 | Debris and open burning | 1.2 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
13 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Safford in 13 storm reports between 2001 and 2022: 7 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2004 | Tornado (F0) | Safford | $18,000 | no account filed |
| September 2009 | Flash Flood | Safford | $10,000 | A portion of CR-115, near the Safford community, was washed out do to heavy rainfall. |
| February 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Safford | $3,000 | A few buildings in Safford had minor to moderate roof damage. Several trees were blown down or snapped off in southwestern Dallas County. |
| October 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Safford | $1,000 | A few trees were blown down in rural southwest Dallas county. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Safford | $500 | A few trees were blown down in far western Dallas County. |
| March 2022 | Tornado (EF0) | Safford | - | National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in western Dallas County and determined that it was consistent with an EF0 tornado, with maximum winds near 85 mph. A short-lived tornado touched down near the intersection of Alabama Highway 22 and County Road 113. Sporadic downed limbs and uprooted trees were noted at this location. The tornado tracked northeast and destroyed a barn as it crossed Alabama Highway 22. Debris was thrown several hundred yards downstream to the edge of a forested area. The tornado dissipated once it reached County Road 109. |
| April 2021 | Hail | Safford | - | Quarter size hail reported in the town of Safford. |
| March 2005 | Hail | Safford | - | Quarter size hail fell in northwestern Dallas County. The hail was observed from near SR 5 to near Marion Junction. The hail may have been larger but much of the hail fell across rural parts of the county. |
| April 2003 | Hail | Safford | - | Hail up to the size of quarters was reported with this supercell as it traversed mostly rural areas of Dallas County. The hail may have been larger but was not observed. |
| February 2001 | Hail | Safford | - | Nickel size hail fell just north of Safford. |
| February 2009 | Hail | Safford | - | no account filed |
| February 2009 | Hail | Safford | - | no account filed |
| February 2008 | Hail | Safford | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blalock | 1.6 miles | 11 | |
| Donald | 2.9 miles | 9 | |
| Westbrook | 3.2 miles | 10 | |
| Sedgefield | 3.4 miles | 9 | |
| Central Mills | 3.7 miles | 11 | |
| Brookwood | 3.7 miles | 10 | |
| Martin | 3.9 miles | 10 | |
| Eleanor | 4.5 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 Safford | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q7398719 | 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 155224. 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.




