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Sanford, Alabama

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in the Andalusia census division. It lies in ZIP code area 36420. The Survey maps it on the Andalusia quadrangle. 257 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 289 feet above sea level.

Sanford within Covington County

Population over time

3 figures

Sanford fell from 742 to 257 between 1910 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
1910742
2010241
2020257+16 (+7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 8 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

78 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 78 fires within 5 miles of Sanford between 1994 and 2019, burning about 531 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 20 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 burning23
Arson/incendiarism20
Equipment and vehicle use16
Missing data/not specified/undetermined11
Recreation and ceremony5
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Natural1

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 2015Arson/incendiarism3.0 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionSER-20150908-001
30 September 1997Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
29 September 2001Equipment and vehicle use4.5 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
23 September 2019Equipment and vehicle use2.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20190923-8
21 September 1997Arson/incendiarism4.2 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
20 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined40 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20190920-12
19 September 2000Equipment and vehicle use2.5 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
24 August 2007Debris and open burningunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Covington County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 31 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 31 workings within 5 miles of Sanford: 21 unknowns, 9 occurrences, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Clay. 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
Andalusia Clay ProspectClayProspect
UnnamedIronUnknown
UnnamedIronUnknown
UnnamedIronUnknown
UnnamedIronUnknown
UnnamedIronUnknown
UnnamedIronUnknown
UnnamedIronUnknown
UnnamedIronUnknown
UnnamedIronUnknown

Every working recorded in Covington County

Storms near this place

4 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sanford in 4 storm reports between 2002 and 2023: 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail. 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
June 2023Thunderstorm WindSanford-High winds downed trees on Highway 84.
January 2023Thunderstorm WindSanford-Measured by site K79J.
April 2021Thunderstorm WindSanford-A vehicle struck a downed tree on Lindsey Bridge Road. No injuries reported.
March 2002HailSanford-Golfball size hail was reported along U. S. Highway 84 just north of Sanford. No damage was reported.

Every storm recorded in Covington 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
Wiggins3.4 miles8
Babbie3.6 miles8
Harmony4.2 miles8
Cedar Grove4.9 miles8
Andalusia5.0 miles8
Horn Hill5.3 miles7
Libertyville5.5 miles7
Opine5.8 miles8

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 SanfordAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q66866The 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 126387. 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.