BlockBefore

Buford, Georgia

20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 1999. It stands in the Buford-Sugar Hill census division. It lies in ZIP code area 30518. The Survey maps it on the Suwanee quadrangle. 17,144 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,184 feet above sea level.

Buford within Gwinnett County

On record in Buford

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 4 records

Population over time

2 figures

Buford grew from 12,225 to 17,144 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
201012,225
202017,144+4,919 (+40%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 20 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

127 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 127 fires within 5 miles of Buford between 1992 and 2018, burning about 355 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 40 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 burning44
Arson/incendiarism40
Missing data/not specified/undetermined12
Misuse of fire by a minor11
Recreation and ceremony6
Equipment and vehicle use6
Smoking5
Natural3

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 1993Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreGeorgia Forestry Commissionnot named
3 September 2011Arson/incendiarism6.4 acresGeorgia Forestry CommissionFY2012-HALL-005
25 September 1999Arson/incendiarism14 acresGeorgia Forestry Commissionnot named
18 September 1999Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresGeorgia Forestry Commissionnot named
16 September 1999Arson/incendiarism2.7 acresGeorgia Forestry Commissionnot named
5 August 1998Missing data/not specified/undetermined9.6 acresGeorgia Forestry Commissionnot named
22 August 2002Natural3.4 acresGeorgia Forestry CommissionFY2003-GWINNETT-003
5 July 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.7 acresGeorgia Forestry CommissionFY2011-HALL-002

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Gwinnett County

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Buford: 2 producers, 1 past producer. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Iron, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Atlantic Steel/ Cartersville, Ga.IronProducer
Friendship QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Level Creek Gold MineGoldPast Producer

Every working recorded in Gwinnett County

Storms near this place

37 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Buford in 37 storm reports between 1997 and 2023: 14 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 9 lightning, 2 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
September 2009FloodBuford$12,500,000Record flooding continued to expand eastern the eastern suburbs of the Atlanta metropolitan area as renewed rounds of showers and thunderstorms with very heavy rain tracked repeatedly over the same areas throughout the day. Portions of hundreds of roads in the county were closed from flooding and washed out bridges and/or culverts. Hundreds of homes, apartments, and businesses sustained significant flood damage. Record flooding was occurring on Suwanee Creek near Suwanee. Some of the most significant flooding occurred in the Stone Mountain area on U.S. Highway 78 from the DeKalb county line to Ross Road. Monetary damage to property and roads during this time frame across Gwinnett county was estimated to be near $12.5 million.
September 2009FloodBuford$5,630,000Gwinnett county emergency management personnel and USGS stream gages confirmed that record to catastrophic flooding continued across much of the county. Hundreds of homes, apartments, businesses, and roads sustained damages from flooding. A number of culverts and/or bridges were washed out and several roads were closed. Flood waters began to recede after 830 am EDT on the 22nd. However, many locations remained in major to record flood until 715 am EDT on the 23rd. Monetary damage from flooding continued to mount, with damages exceeding $5.6 million during this time frame.
April 2007Thunderstorm WindBuford$350,000The Gwinnett Daily Post reported that seven homes within the county, mainly in the northwest portion between Duluth and Buford, were damaged by strong straight-line winds. The homes were mainly damaged when large trees fell on the structures. The most significant damage was reported at the Saratoga Spring Apartment Complex in Duluth, where a large tree destroyed four apartment units.
July 2008LightningBuford$250,000The Gwinnett Extra portion of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that caused nine structural fires in the Buford area. The most significant incident was a home set on fire in the 900 block of Creekview Bluff Way in Buford. The roof of the two-story home was completely destroyed.
July 2010LightningBuford$200,000Fox 5 Television of Atlanta and the Gwinnett Daily Post reported that lightning struck a home on Roberts Street just northeast of Buford. The single story, single family home was completely destroyed as a result of the ensuing fire. A family of four was displaced as a result of this incident, but no injuries occurred.
July 2005LightningBuford$132,000The Gwinnett Daily Post reported that at least four lightning incidents occurred during the afternoon. One home on Pintail Court in Lawrenceville suffered moderate damage to an exterior wall and attic when lightning set it on fire. A second home on Kennedy Road in Buford sustained significant damage when lightning set the attic on fire which burned through the roof of the home. A third fire occurred on Windy Shore Drive in Snellville. Only minor damage to an interior garage wall was reported at this location. Finally, lightning struck a transformer in the area causing 6500 people to lose power.
August 2006LightningBuford$100,000The Gwinnett Daily Post reported that a home on Goldmist Drive was struck by lightning and set on fire. Considerable damage was noted to the attic and one room. The home was declared uninhabitable resulting in the displacement of three people.
July 1999LightningBuford$30,000A newspaper reported lightning sparked a fire that heavily damaged a church at the intersection of Island Ford and Buford Dam roads.
August 2009LightningBuford$25,000The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported that lightning struck a home in the 7000 block of River Island Circle. A portion of the roof and an exterior wall were set on fire before the fire was extinguished. The structure suffered minor structural damage.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindBuford$15,000The public reported a few trees blown down on the east side of Buford from Rolling Creek Drive to Stoneleigh Run Drive where one tree fell onto a parked car causing some damage to the roof.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindBuford$15,000The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that several trees and power lines were down across the county. The Gwinnett County 911 Center reported that several power lines were down in the Buford area. Several roads were either blocked or at least partially blocked, including East Shadburn Ferry in Buford, South Berkeley Lake Road in Duluth, and Highpoint Road Southwest near U.S. Highway 78 in Snellville.
April 1998HailBuford$5,000Golfball size hail damaged a car.
July 1997Thunderstorm WindBuford$4,000Thunderstorm winds knocked over several large tree limbs, one of which crushed patio furniture.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindBuford$3,500The Gwinnett Times reported that a large tree was blown down, which broke five to six power poles.
August 2011Thunderstorm WindBuford$3,000The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported that at least 10 trees were blown down along Buford Highway in northern Gwinnett county from a thunderstorm downburst.
May 2006LightningBuford$3,000The Gwinnett Daily Post of Lawrenceville reported that lightning struck and set on fire a storage shed at a home on Amer Creek Trail. The shed was completely destroyed. The nearby home was not damaged since the shed was unattached to the home.
December 2005HailBuford$3,000Several reports were received from the public of quarter-sized hail in Buford and east of Buford to near the Hall county line. One report from the public indicated hail as large as half-dollars in the Buford area.
May 2006LightningBuford$2,000A local newspaper reported that lightning struck a storage shed adjacent to a home, setting the storage shed on fire. The adjacent home was not damaged.
June 1997Thunderstorm WindBuford$2,000Thunderstorm winds caused minor structural damage to a home.
June 2011LightningBuford$1,000The Gwinnett County Emergency Management Director reported that a home on Stewart Ridge Walk, NE in Buford was struck by lightning. Although there was a strong smell of smoke, no fire occurred. It appeared that lightning had affected some of the electrical components of the home with no fire. Monetary damage was minimal and related to electrical equipment.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindBuford$1,000The Gwinnett County SkyWarn measured a wind gust of 60 mph in Buford at 1845 LDT. The wind gust caused minor damage to the roof of one home. A few minutes earlier, other SkyWarn members estimated wind gusts in the 50 to 60 mph range near Interstate-85 and Georgia Highway 20 in the Sugar Hill and Buford area, very close to the Mall of Georgia. Then in the 1850 - 1855 period, the same thunderstorm caused damage to a home north of Dacula and just west of Auburn on the Gwinnett/Barrow county line when wind gusts blew some shutters off the house.
May 1998HailBuford$1,000A public report indicated hail ranging dime to golf ball size.
October 2014Thunderstorm WindBuford$500The Gwinnett County Emergency Manager reported two trees down in the vicinity of Hamilton Mill Road, Thrasher Road and I-985.
August 2023Thunderstorm WindBuford-Report from mping, power-poles broken.
March 2008HailBuford-An amateur radio operator reported quarter-sized hail in far northern Gwinnett county in the Buford area.
May 2006HailBuford-A number of reports of hail, ranging in size from pennies to ping-pong balls, were received from the public across many areas of Gwinnett county, especially the northeast two-thirds of the county, northeast of a line from Norcross to Grayson. Ping-pong ball-sized hail was reported in the Lawrenceville area. Nickel to quarter-sized hail was reported from both Snellville and Grayson, with nickel-sized hail reported in the Norcross area. Penny-sized hail was reported in the north part of the county in the Buford area, while near penny-sized hail was reported near the Walton county line southeast of Grayson.
June 2005HailBuford-The public reported penny-sized hail in Buford and quarter-sized hail in Dacula.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindBuford-A spotter with the Gwinnett County Skywarn measured a wind gust of 62 mph with an electronic home weather station.
December 2004HailBuford-A Gwinnett County SkyWarn spotter reported penny-sized hail.
July 2004HailBuford-A spotter with the Gwinnett County SkyWarn reported penny-sized hail.
June 2003Thunderstorm WindBuford-A SkyWarn spotter for the Gwinnett County ARIES reported a wind gust to 60 mph.
June 2001HailBuford-The public reported dime size hail.
May 1999HailBuford-The public reported dime size hail.
April 1998HailBuford-Larger than nickel size hail was reported at Buford Dam.
October 1997HailBuford-Dime size hail was reported by the public.
July 1997HailBuford-no account filed
June 1997HailBuford-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Gwinnett 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
Sagefield1.0 miles16
Woodbriar East1.4 miles15
Pebble Brook1.5 miles15
Northwest Harbor1.6 miles21
Rest Haven1.7 miles16
Hickory Hills1.8 miles20
Sugar Hill1.8 miles20
Lake Lanier Vista2.0 miles21

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 BufordAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1002205The 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 312001. 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.