Smithonia, Georgia

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1891 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the Crawford census division. It lies in ZIP code area 30628. It stands on Long Branch. The Survey maps it on the Danielsville South quadrangle.

Smithonia within Oglethorpe County

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 14 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.

1891 USGS Carnesville quadrangle1:125000, 6 printings
1954 USGS Greenville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1958 USGS Danielsville quadrangle1:62500
1958 USGS Greenville quadrangle1:250000
1972 USGS Danielsville South quadrangle1:24000
1979 USGS Commerce quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

Fires near this place

215 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 215 fires within 5 miles of Smithonia between 1992 and 2019, burning about 457 acres in total. 10 started naturally. 12 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	131
Equipment and vehicle use	20
Misuse of fire by a minor	13
Arson/incendiarism	12
Natural	10
Smoking	10
Railroad operations and maintenance	8
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	6
Recreation and ceremony	5

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
3 September 2018	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2019OGLETHORPE003
20 September 1997	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
19 September 2005	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
19 September 2005	Equipment and vehicle use	2.4 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
19 September 2003	Smoking	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
18 September 2003	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
14 September 2005	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
14 September 1999	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Oglethorpe County

Storms near this place

7 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Smithonia in 7 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 5 thunderstorm wind, 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithonia	$10,000	The Athens Banner-Herald and the public reported that thunderstorm winds blew down a large swath of trees in the Smithonia area and between there and Georgia Highway 22. Two barns were destroyed and two homes sustained minor, mostly roof, damage. Some of the downed trees were uprooted while others were twisted and sheared or snapped off.
March 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithonia	$10,000	no account filed
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithonia	$5,000	The Oglethorpe County 911 Center reported that several trees and power lines were down across the county, including the communities of Crawford, Lexington, Stephens, and Maxeys. Radar data suggests that the most significant wind damage occurred in the eastern part of the county.
July 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithonia	$4,000	The Oglethorpe County Emergency Manager reported several trees blown down across the western part of the county, between Winterville and Arnoldsville.
August 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithonia	$1,000	Report of tree was downed on Melton Road.
May 2019	Hail	Smithonia	-	Oglethorpe County EMA reported quarter sized hail in he Beaver Dam Lake area. Time estimated from radar.
June 1999	Hail	Smithonia	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Oglethorpe 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
Dunlap	5.3 miles	13
Arnoldsville	7.1 miles	11
Sandy Cross	7.1 miles	11
Crawford	8.4 miles	11
Point Peter	8.6 miles	11
Lexington	9.8 miles	11
Veribest	10.4 miles	13
Hutchins	11.1 miles	10

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 326517. 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.