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Welch, Alabama

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1899 and the latest in 1978. It stands in the Five Points census division. It lies in ZIP code area 36855. The Survey maps it on the Five Points quadrangle. It stands 860 feet above sea level.

Welch within Chambers County

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 11 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

138 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 138 fires within 5 miles of Welch between 1994 and 2020, burning about 773 acres in total. None started naturally. 28 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 burning60
Arson/incendiarism28
Missing data/not specified/undetermined20
Equipment and vehicle use10
Railroad operations and maintenance9
Recreation and ceremony7
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
9 September 2008Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
24 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commission20190924-26
24 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commission20190924-29
23 September 2018Debris and open burning5.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20180923-3
22 September 2010Debris and open burning1.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
20 September 2010Debris and open burning2.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
20 September 2010Arson/incendiarism15 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
16 September 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commission20160916-5

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Chambers County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Welch: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Manganese. 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
R.I.Beckem PropertyIron, ManganeseOccurrence

Every working recorded in Chambers County

Storms near this place

2 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Welch in 2 storm reports between 2003 and 2020: 1 hail, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2020Flash FloodWelch-Rainfall totals of 3-5 inches over a two hour period produced resulted in several flooded roadways across northern Chambers County. Water about a foot deep flowing across Highway 278 at Stroud Creek and culvert washed out along County Road 234.
March 2003HailWelch-Penny size hail was observed in extreme northern Chambers County near US 431.

Every storm recorded in Chambers 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
Cumbee Mill1.9 miles11
Stroud2.3 miles11
Doublehead2.9 miles11
Finley3.6 miles11
Standing Rock4.6 miles11
Five Points4.9 miles11
McCosh Mill5.7 miles14
Clackville5.9 miles11

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 WelchAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q86754625The 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 128716. 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.