BlockBefore

Strong, Arkansas

16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1933 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Lapile Township. It lies in ZIP code area 71765. It stands on Norris Branch. The Survey maps it on the Strong quadrangle. 410 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 98 feet above sea level.

Strong within Union County

Population over time

2 figures

Strong fell from 558 to 410 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
2010558
2020410-148 (-27%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 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

73 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 73 fires within 5 miles of Strong between 1999 and 2019, burning about 873 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 13 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined28
Debris and open burning24
Arson/incendiarism13
Equipment and vehicle use3
Natural3
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Smoking1

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 September 2014Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresArkansas Forestry CommissionUNI15959013
24 September 1999Debris and open burning1.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
24 September 1999Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
21 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined82 acresArkansas Forestry CommissionFELSENTHAL
21 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
21 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined7.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
20 September 2006Debris and open burning2.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
2 September 2000Natural5.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Union County

Storms near this place

37 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Strong in 37 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 16 thunderstorm wind, 14 hail, 4 flash flood, 2 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. 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 2009Thunderstorm WindStrong1 hurt, $30,000A tree was downed on a home in Strong, Arkansas with one minor injury reported.
May 2015Thunderstorm WindStrong$20,000Several trees were downed in the Strong community. A tree was down on the Community Center in town.
April 2013Thunderstorm WindStrong$20,000Numerous trees were downed in Strong, Arkansas. One of these trees fell on a home and another tree fell on a local library. There were no report of injuries.
November 1994Thunderstorm WindStrong$5,000Some trees were blown down.
May 2025HailStrong-Several pictures of golfball to hen egg size hail were taken and posted to social media, that fell just east/southeast of Strong.
April 2025Flash FloodStrong-A section of Highway 275 just north of Strong was closed due to high water.
March 2023HailStrong-Quarter size hail reported in Strong.
April 2023HailStrong-Quarter size hail fell at the Teddy Bears Truck Stop in Strong.
May 2021Flash FloodStrong-A temporary bridge on Highway 82 near Strong was damaged and was in danger of washing out.
February 2020FloodStrong-State Highway 275 was closed due to high water and continued runoff from Dry Creek and South Lapile Creek just north of Strong.
April 2019Flash FloodStrong-Highway 275 was closed from the Highway 129 intersection south to the Louisiana border in Southern Union County. Heavy rainfall had flooded the highway at three different creek crossings.
April 2018Thunderstorm WindStrong-A shed was flipped over in the community of Strong.
March 2016HailStrong-Quarter size hail reported in Strong.
May 2016Thunderstorm WindStrong-A tree was blown down on Highway 82 on the west side of Strong.
May 2016HailStrong-Golfball size hail was reported in Strong.
March 2014Thunderstorm WindStrong-Several trees and powerlines were downed in the Strong community.
December 2012Thunderstorm WindStrong-Trees were downed in and around the town of Strong, Arkansas.
April 2012Thunderstorm WindStrong-Trees were downed on Aurelle Road in Strong, Arkansas.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindStrong-Powerlines and power poles were downed along Hwy. 82.
May 2009Thunderstorm WindStrong-A couple of trees were blown down in town.
March 2008Thunderstorm WindStrong-Several large limbs were blown down on New London highway.
March 2007Thunderstorm WindStrong-One tree was downed along Hwy 275 with multiple limbs down. Power lines were also downed about 3/4 of a mile south of the intersection of Hwy 15 and 275 ner the Union/Bradley County line.
April 2003Tornado (F1)Strong-This was a combination of ground and aerial. Numerous trees were snapped off or blown down. No structures were in the tornado path. This tornado moved into Bradley County, AR.
December 2002Tornado (F1)Strong-A strong tornado developed under a supercell moving northeast across the county. As the tornado developed in Union Parish, Louisiana, eyewitness reports described the tornado as resembling a stove pipe with screaming winds sounding like a banshee. Where the tornado originally touched down, a bowl like appearance was carved into the woods when viewing the impact point horizontally. The tornado then continued northeast across a combination of farmland and wooded region destroying 2 mobile homes and severely damaging 6 wooden houses. As the tornado moved into Union County, Arkansas, the tornado moved across only heavily wooded area void of structures.
December 2001Flash FloodStrong-Oarkland road near strong was closed due to high water.
April 1995Thunderstorm WindStrong-Thunderstorm winds knocked down a tree.
May 2007HailStrong-no account filed
April 2003HailStrong-no account filed
May 2001HailStrong-no account filed
March 2000HailStrong-no account filed
August 1999HailStrong-no account filed
May 1999HailStrong-no account filed
March 1996HailStrong-no account filed
September 1996Thunderstorm WindStrong-no account filed
March 1996Thunderstorm WindStrong-no account filed
November 1994HailStrong-no account filed
May 1993HailStrong-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Union 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
Union2.2 miles16
Victoria2.3 miles16
Gardner2.4 miles16
Lapile3.6 miles16
Sandy Bend4.1 miles16
Old Lapile5.4 miles18
Sawmill5.5 miles16
Aurelle5.6 miles16

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 StrongAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q79369The 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 78476. 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.