Sunny Side, Georgia
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the Sunny Side census division. The Survey maps it on the Griffin North quadrangle. 203 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 922 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresSunny Side grew from 134 to 203 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 134 | |
| 2020 | 203 | +69 (+51%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 9 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.
- 1953 USGS Atlanta quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Atlanta quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Atlanta quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Griffin North quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1979 USGS Griffin quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
309 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 309 fires within 5 miles of Sunny Side between 1992 and 2020, burning about 877 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 50 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 | 169 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 50 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 32 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 16 |
| Smoking | 15 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 14 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8 |
| Natural | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2016 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2017-SPALDING-001 |
| 6 September 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 36 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 5 September 1997 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 30 September 1993 | Debris and open burning | 1.1 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 24 September 2011 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2012-SPALDING-012 |
| 23 September 2008 | Equipment and vehicle use | 9.2 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 19 September 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2012-SPALDING-011 |
| 17 September 1997 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
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 Sunny Side: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Granite. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Turner Quarry | Granite | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
15 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sunny Side in 15 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 8 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 flash flood, 1 tornado. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sunny Side | $50,000 | Spalding County Emergency Services reported numerous trees and power lines blown down across the county in a swath about five miles wide from Manley Road south of Sunny Side across the city of Griffin. |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sunny Side | $20,000 | The Spalding County 911 center reported numerous trees and several power lines blown down across the county from Sunnyside to south of Griffin. |
| June 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sunny Side | $10,000 | The Spalding County 911 Center reported that a number of trees and power lines were down from Sunny Side to the west side of Griffin. Trees were down on Manley Road west of Atlanta Road in the north part of the county, near Sunny Side. The Griffin Daily News reported that the downed trees also caused several power lines to be knocked down. Power lines were down across Manley Road resulting in several vehicle accidents. The public reported minor damage to a home in Griffin. A few shingles, parts of a gutter and siding were damaged. Loose items, such as lawn furniture, were blown from one yard into another. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sunny Side | $4,000 | The Spalding County Emergency Manager reported trees blown down in the Sunny Side area. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sunny Side | $1,000 | Tree down at Patterson Road and Birdie Road . |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sunny Side | $1,000 | The Spalding County 911 center reported a tree blown down near the intersection of Malier Road and Highway 41. |
| April 2025 | Tornado (EF0) | Sunny Side | - | An EF0 tornado with maximum winds of 80 mph touched down in|northern Spalding County along Patterson road around 7:38 AM EDT|on April 7, 2025. The tornado snapped a few trees along|Patterson Road eastward along Mobley Road. The storm crossed Hwy|19 with no damage noted, however, just east of hwy 19 along Ga|Hwy 3 there were numerous trees downed including one onto a home|along Carolyn Dr. The tornado continued east in a mostly|inaccessible and wooded region east of North Pomona Road before|crossing Teamon Road where several trees were snapped on both|sides. The tornado weakened in the Meeks St. area at around|7:44 AM. This tornado was part of the same storm which spawned a|tornado in western Spalding county 15 minutes prior and up to|this one beginning. |
| April 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sunny Side | - | Mobile home damaged and a powerline down in timber creek mobile home park. |
| August 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sunny Side | - | Reports of trees down between 4000 and 5000 block of Old Atlanta Road. Additional trees down on 200 block of Birdie Road. |
| August 2020 | Flash Flood | Sunny Side | - | The Emergency Manager reported a car was stuck in flood waters on Vineyard Road. Radar estimates indicate that 3 to 4 inches of rain fell quickly over the area, resulting in the flash flooding. |
| May 2003 | Hail | Sunny Side | - | The public reported quarter-sized hail in East Griffin and an amateur radio operator reported penny-sized hail west of Griffin, while the public reported nickel-sized hail in Sunny Side. |
| May 1999 | Hail | Sunny Side | - | The public reported quarter size hail. |
| June 1999 | Hail | Sunny Side | - | The public reported quarter size hail. |
| April 1998 | Hail | Sunny Side | - | Several public reports indicated dime to quarter size hail. |
| May 1998 | Hail | Sunny Side | - | The Spalding county EMA Director reported quarter size hail. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caruso | 0.8 miles | 9 | |
| Pomona | 1.5 miles | 9 | |
| Birdie | 3.2 miles | 9 | |
| Burdett (historical) | 3.6 miles | 9 | |
| Highland Mills | 4.4 miles | 9 | |
| Towalaga | 4.9 miles | 10 | |
| Experiment | 5.2 miles | 9 | |
| Esmond | 5.6 miles | 9 |
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 Sunny Side | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2037406 | 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 333163. 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.




