Pretoria, Georgia

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the West Dougherty census division. It lies in ZIP code area 31721. The Survey maps it on the Pretoria quadrangle. It stands 187 feet above sea level.

Pretoria within Dougherty County

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 10 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
1956 USGS Sasser quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1973 USGS Pretoria quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1981 USGS Albany quadrangle1:100000

Fires near this place

81 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 81 fires within 5 miles of Pretoria between 1992 and 2020, burning about 314 acres in total. 1 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 burning	58
Equipment and vehicle use	12
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5
Railroad operations and maintenance	3
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Arson/incendiarism	1
Natural	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
7 September 2017	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2018-DOUGHERTY-003
5 September 2004	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
24 September 1997	Debris and open burning	11 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
23 September 1995	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
30 August 1997	Debris and open burning	4.3 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
15 August 2007	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
5 July 2006	Misuse of fire by a minor	2.4 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
29 July 2004	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Dougherty County

Storms near this place

6 since 2011

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Pretoria in 6 storm reports between 2011 and 2021: 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 tornado. The reports record 5 deaths and 32 injuries. 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
January 2017	Tornado (EF3)	Pretoria	5 killed, 32 hurt, $300,000,000	A large, long-track tornado touched down near Dougherty/Baker Co. line and traveled over 70 miles across Dougherty, Worth, Turner, and Wilcox Counties in South Georgia. The tornado lifted just east of Abbeville. The tornado caused significant damage along the track, resulting in 5 fatalities in Albany. Severe tree damage was observed along the entire path which was up to 1.2 miles wide. In many spots, 90 to 100 percent of the trees in the path were uprooted or snapped. In Dougherty County, the tornado touched down on Tarva Road. By the time it reached Newton, the tornado was approximately 1.25 miles wide. There was extensive tree damage and some minor to moderate damage to a few homes in this area, consistent with EF2 damage. The tornado moved through the Radium Springs area, destroying nearly every tree in its path and causing EF2 damage to several houses. Most houses in this area had significant damage from falling trees. The tornado then moved through several mobile home parks just west of U.S. 319, destroying many mobile homes and causing the 4 fatalities. Damage consistent with an EF3 tornado was observed just east of U.S. 319. The tornado caused a large portion of a warehouse at the Proctor and Gamble Plant to collapse and tossed several semi-trailers across Mock Road. Additional EF3 damage was observed at the Marine Corp Logistics Base, where multiple anchored double-wide trailers were completely destroyed. In addition, several concrete light poles were snapped near the base, and a large solid concrete building had its solid concrete roof shifted more than 2 inches. A well-built concrete block church on Sylvester Rd was demolished with only parts of a few walls remaining. The estimated wind speed at this point is 150 mph, the highest analyzed along the track. EF3 damage was also observed on Harris Road where a cement block church was destroyed. Damage estimates exceeded $300 million according to a media article citing the Dougherty County Commissioner.
March 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Pretoria	$1,500	Trees were blown down on Aristedes Road. The monetary damage figure provided is a rough estimate.
May 2012	Hail	Pretoria	$1,000	Quarter size hail dented a car near the intersection of 8 Mile Road and Leary Road. Monetary damage was estimated.
September 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Pretoria	$1,000	A tree was blown down across Tarva Road near the Baker county line. Monetary damage was estimated.
May 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Pretoria	-	A tree was blown down on the 2700 Block of Tarva Road.
May 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Pretoria	-	A tree was blown down at Leary Road and Eight Mile Road.

Every storm recorded in Dougherty 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
Walker	2.5 miles	10
Ducker	3.0 miles	10
Rolling Acres	4.4 miles	13
Lockett Crossing	5.0 miles	10
Brookhollow	5.4 miles	10
Cedar Lake	5.5 miles	10
Indian Creek	5.6 miles	10
Gillionville Forest	6.1 miles	10

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 Pretoria	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7242164	The 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 321132. 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.