Sigma, Alabama

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Dothan census division. It lies in ZIP code area 36312. It stands on Yance Branch. The Survey maps it on the Sigma quadrangle.

Sigma within Houston County

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 7 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.

1953 USGS Dothan quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1954 USGS Dothan quadrangle1:250000
1955 USGS Dothan quadrangle1:250000
1970 USGS Sigma quadrangle1:24000
1981 USGS Dothan quadrangle1:100000

Fires near this place

45 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 45 fires within 5 miles of Sigma between 1994 and 2020, burning about 322 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 4 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	18
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	9
Recreation and ceremony	4
Arson/incendiarism	4
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Natural	3
Smoking	1
Railroad operations and maintenance	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	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
4 September 1995	Debris and open burning	4.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
3 September 2000	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
23 September 2019	Debris and open burning	20 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	20190923-15
12 September 1999	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
18 July 2002	Equipment and vehicle use	5.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
15 July 2000	Equipment and vehicle use	6.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
10 July 2012	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	22 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	SER-20120710-002
5 June 2019	Debris and open burning	3.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	20190605-1

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Houston County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 17 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of Sigma: 9 occurrences, 8 unknowns. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Unnamed	Iron	Unknown
Unnamed	Iron	Unknown
Unnamed	Iron	Unknown
Unnamed	Iron	Unknown
Unnamed	Iron	Unknown
Unnamed	Iron	Unknown
Unnamed	Iron	Unknown
Unnamed	Iron	Unknown
Unnamed Deposit	Iron	Occurrence
Unnamed Deposit	Iron	Occurrence

Every working recorded in Houston County

Storms near this place

3 since 2016

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sigma in 3 storm reports between 2016 and 2021: 1 lightning, 1 heavy rain, 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
April 2021	Tornado (EF0)	Sigma	$25,000	A brief EF0 tornado with max winds estimated at 80 mph touched down in Houston County just west of North CR 75. Power lines were damaged along the road. Roughly half of the metal roofing from one brick home was peeled on and lofted into the backyard. Minor damage to the metal roof of a neighboring home was observed. The tornado continued into the forested area behind the home, causing tree damage, before dissipating.
November 2018	Heavy Rain	Sigma	$1,000	Previous heavy rainfall resulted in an embankment washing out near the intersection of Bill Yance Road and Benton Store Road. This resulted in a power pole falling on some trees, which caused a power outage to 267 customers. Radar estimated around 4 inches of rain had fallen overnight.
August 2016	Lightning	Sigma	$1,000	A shed caught fire due a lightning strike. Damage was estimated.

Every storm recorded in Houston 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Pearce	2.2 miles	7
Pleasant Plains	2.3 miles	7
Williams	2.4 miles	7
Seminole Heights	3.6 miles	7
Barber	3.9 miles	7
Webb	4.3 miles	7
Columbia	4.6 miles	9
Enon	6.2 miles	9

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 126835. 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.