Rayle, Georgia
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1906 and the latest in 1988. It stands in the Rayle census division. It lies in ZIP code area 30660. The Survey maps it on the Rayle quadrangle. 158 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 702 feet above sea level.
On record in Rayle
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 1 record
- James and Cunningham Daniel Houselisted 1980
Population over time
3 figuresRayle grew from 139 to 158 between 2000 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 139 | |
| 2010 | 199 | +60 (+43%) |
| 2020 | 158 | -41 (-21%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 12 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1906 USGS Crawfordville quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1953 USGS Athens quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Athens quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Athens quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Athens quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS Rayle quadrangle1:24000
- 1980 USGS Clark Hill Lake quadrangle1:100000
- 1988 USGS Athens quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
102 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 102 fires within 5 miles of Rayle between 1992 and 2019, burning about 490 acres in total. 6 started naturally. 6 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 burning | 49 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 11 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 7 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 6 |
| Natural | 6 |
| Smoking | 6 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.4 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 30 September 1994 | Debris and open burning | 2.9 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 3 September 1999 | Smoking | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 23 September 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 22 September 2018 | Debris and open burning | 13 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2019WILKES001 |
| 19 September 2010 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2011-WILKES-008 |
| 14 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2012-WILKES-013 |
| 6 August 2002 | Debris and open burning | 7.8 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2003-WILKES-002 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Rayle: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gold. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latimer Mine (Fairy Ridge) | Gold | Past Producer | Vein |
Storms near this place
13 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rayle in 13 storm reports between 1997 and 2017: 9 thunderstorm wind, 3 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rayle | $150,000 | The Wilkes County Emergency Management Director reported that more than a dozen trees and several power lines were down across the county. Two homes sustained minor to moderate damage. |
| August 2008 | Hail | Rayle | $30,000 | The public observed golf ball-sized hail south of Rayle. |
| February 2005 | Hail | Rayle | $25,000 | The Wilkes County Sherrif's Department reported half-dollar-sized hail in the Sardis Road area. Some vehicle damage was reported in the area. |
| March 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rayle | $10,000 | The Wilkes County Emergency Manager reported numerous trees blown down across the county from near Rayle to Holiday Park. |
| November 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rayle | $10,000 | A TV news reporter indicated that the roof of a home was partially damaged by thunderstorms winds in Rayle and that approximately 25 trees were down in Tignall. |
| December 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rayle | $5,000 | The Wilkes County Emergency Management Director reported that a barn was blown across a field on Clark-Gresham Road, just northwest of Rayle near the Oglethorpe county line. |
| September 2009 | Flash Flood | Rayle | $5,000 | The USGS stream gage on Kettle Creek just south of Washington reached its flood stage of 14 feet at 1145 pm EDT. The creek remained above flood stage for several hours. Monetary damage was confined to minor debris removal from areas adjacent to the creek. |
| March 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rayle | $5,000 | no account filed |
| March 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rayle | $3,000 | The Wilkes County Emergency Management Director reported that many trees were blown down, scattered about the county. |
| August 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rayle | $2,000 | The Washington News Reporter indicated that skirting was blown off several mobile homes at a mobile home sales lot. |
| February 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rayle | $1,000 | The Wilkes County Sherrif's Department reported that several large trees limbs were down in the Rayle area blocking some secondary roads. |
| August 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rayle | $100 | Rayle EMC reported several large trees were blown down. |
| March 1997 | Hail | Rayle | - | no account filed |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Centerville | 1.4 miles | 12 | |
| Callaway | 1.9 miles | 12 | |
| Thaxton (historical) | 2.6 miles | 12 | |
| Celeste | 3.0 miles | 12 | |
| Linesville | 4.2 miles | 12 | |
| Lina (historical) | 4.8 miles | 13 | |
| Brickhouse | 4.8 miles | 12 | |
| New Town | 5.0 miles | 12 |
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 Rayle | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2218327 | 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 332801. 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.







