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Portland, Arkansas

16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1935 and the latest in 2002. It stands in Portland Township. It lies in ZIP code area 71663. The Survey maps it on the Portland quadrangle. 325 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 125 feet above sea level.

Portland within Ashley County

On record in Portland

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 5 records

Population over time

2 figures

Portland fell from 430 to 325 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.

YearPeople Change
2010430
2020325-105 (-24%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 16 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

5 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Portland between 2003 and 2018, burning about 18 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was 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 burning2
Arson/incendiarism1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
30 March 2007Debris and open burning1.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
23 October 2010Arson/incendiarism10 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
2 October 2003Debris and open burning4.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
27 January 2004Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
26 January 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Ashley County

Storms near this place

19 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Portland in 19 storm reports between 1994 and 2023: 10 thunderstorm wind, 4 flash flood, 2 tornado, 2 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
January 2023Thunderstorm WindPortland$100,000Numerous buildings suffered roofing damage consisting of primarily shingle loss or tin peeling. Several large branches were also downed. Damage was consistent with strong southerly winds and stretched from Portland eastward along Highway 160. The most substantial damage occurred to an outbuilding that suffered enough roof damage to have insulation strewn down wind.
May 2011Tornado (EF2)Portland$100,000Ten power poles were snapped along with several overturned irrigation pivots. There was minor damage to the roofs of several homes, along with several trees snapped and uprooted. A carport was destroyed, and tin was blown off several outbuildings.
August 2008Thunderstorm WindPortland$100,000Numerous trees and several power lines were blown down across the county. Damage was scattered in nature but widespread across the county.
March 2014Thunderstorm WindPortland$50,000A swath of straight line wind damage began near Highway 165 between Portland and Parkdale, Arkansas. Eight wooden power poles were snapped off to the east along Highway 165 just to the south of Portland. An outbuilding was flipped over to the east as well along Empire Road just inside Chicot County. The damage swath was about 3 miles long and 1 mile wide.
November 1994Thunderstorm WindPortland$50,000Thunderstorm winds damaged a shed at a local business.
August 2017Flash FloodPortland$25,000Farm equipment was under water and water occurred over a farm road in Portland.
February 2019Flash FloodPortland$15,000All lanes of Highway 160 were closed east of Portland due to flooding.
April 2019Flash FloodPortland$10,000Water covered roads and many county roads were impassable.
May 2011Thunderstorm WindPortland$10,000Large oak trees were uprooted and a porch was damaged along Highway 160.
April 2017Thunderstorm WindPortland$5,000Powerlines were blown down in Portland.
May 2015Thunderstorm WindPortland$5,000A powerline was blown down along Highway 165.
November 1994Thunderstorm WindPortland$5,000Thunderstorm winds damaged a storage building.
August 2017Flash FloodPortland$3,000Minor street flooding occurred in Portland.
September 2011Thunderstorm WindPortland$3,000Trees were blown down in Portland.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindPortland$2,000Several trees were blown down across County Road 52.
March 2014HailPortland-Dime to quarter sized hail was reported.
March 2008Funnel CloudPortland-Funnel cloud was observed near Portland.
May 2008HailPortland-A swath of quarter sized hail fell from an strengthening supercell thunderstorm.
May 1998Tornado (F0)Portland-This tornado was sighted by spotters. It touched down briefly and did not produce any damage.

Every storm recorded in Ashley 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
Jackson (historical)3.5 miles12
Sunshine3.6 miles16
Montrose4.2 miles13
Lloyd4.3 miles13
Donbey4.9 miles13
Thebes5.1 miles13
Mount Pleasant5.5 miles16
Post Oak6.6 miles13

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 PortlandAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q80163The 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 58412. 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.