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Buncombe, Illinois

20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1918 and the latest in 1996. It stands in Elvira precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 62912. The Survey maps it on the Vienna quadrangle. 207 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 518 feet above sea level.

Buncombe within Johnson County

Population over time

2 figures

Buncombe grew from 203 to 207 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
2010203
2020207+4 (+2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

13 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

15 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 15 fires within 5 miles of Buncombe between 2006 and 2017, burning about 33 acres in total. None 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 burning6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Smoking1
Arson/incendiarism1
Recreation and ceremony1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
24 September 2007Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresShawnee National ForestDUTCHMAN
29 August 2012Smoking12 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesMAZE
28 August 2012Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresShawnee National ForestBOTTOMS
12 April 2015Debris and open burning2.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesPISGAH1
9 March 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesCHARLES PROCTOR
4 March 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources9
28 March 2014Debris and open burning5.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesDAVIS1
21 March 2015Debris and open burning2.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBUN01

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Johnson County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Buncombe: 1 producer, 1 occurrence. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Fire Clay (Refractory). 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
Shawnee Low Interest Refractory Clay DepositFire Clay (Refractory)OccurrenceSedimentary
Southern Illinois Stone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer

Every working recorded in Johnson County

Storms near this place

13 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Buncombe in 13 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 7 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 2 flash flood, 1 flood. The reports record 1 injury. 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
July 2022Thunderstorm WindBuncombe1 hurt, $30,000Numerous trees were snapped in the Buncombe area, and large limbs were downed. A few miles southwest of Buncombe, one person was injured after a tree fell onto their vehicle while driving on Route 146. A large tree fell onto their westbound vehicle. The person was taken to a hospital for treatment. The vehicle was totalled.
February 2011Thunderstorm WindBuncombe$60,000Several structures were damaged or destroyed on a farm. One machine shed was levelled, with only the north wall left standing. The roofs were blown off two other sheds. Two grain bins were heavily damaged. One of the bins was blown on its side, and the other bin was shifted three feet off its foundation. Part of the roof to one of the sheds was wrapped around a utility pole. The other part of the roof blew across a road and wrapped around a tractor.
April 2011Thunderstorm WindBuncombe$40,000There were numerous reports of downed tree limbs and power lines. Some shingles were blown off houses.
October 2017Thunderstorm WindBuncombe$20,000An area of scattered wind damage continued east from the Union County line through western Johnson County. Numerous large tree limbs and a few power lines were blown down. A few trees were blown down. The damage occurred west of Vienna, between Buncombe and Cypress. The maximum damage path width was one mile, but the average width was about one-half mile.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindBuncombe$5,000Straight line wind damage occurred to several trees along Pleasant Grove Rd southwest of Buncombe, following the lifting of a tornado, including trees that snapped or were uprooted.
July 2014Thunderstorm WindBuncombe$3,000A few trees were blown down.
July 2016FloodBuncombe-Water covered some portions of local roads.
August 2006Flash FloodBuncombe-Lick Creek Road was closed due to water running across the roadway.
November 2005Flash FloodBuncombe-Some roads were flooded, primarily in northern and western portions of the county. A spotter measured 4.63 inches of rain near Buncombe, with 3.40 inches of rain falling in four hours.
June 1997Thunderstorm WindBuncombe-The county sheriff reported trees down across Route 37.
April 2011HailBuncombe-no account filed
May 2011HailBuncombe-no account filed
April 2010HailBuncombe-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Johnson 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
Omar2.1 miles20
West Vienna3.0 miles20
Elvira3.2 miles18
Pleasant Grove3.5 miles18
Stringtown (historical)5.0 miles20
Bloomfield5.6 miles20
Vienna5.7 miles20
Goreville5.7 miles20

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 BuncombeAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2671657The 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 405188. 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.