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Cambria, Illinois

18 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1910 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Blairsville precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 62915. The Survey maps it on the Herrin quadrangle. 1,505 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 427 feet above sea level.

Cambria within Williamson County

Population over time

2 figures

Cambria grew from 1,228 to 1,505 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
20101,228
20201,505+277 (+23%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

11 surveys from 18 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

63 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 63 fires within 5 miles of Cambria between 1992 and 2020, burning about 148 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined35
Smoking14
Debris and open burning7
Recreation and ceremony3
Arson/incendiarism2
Equipment and vehicle use2

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
6 September 1999Arson/incendiarism14 acresCrab Orchard National Wildlife RefugeGOBPOINT
5 September 1999Smokingunder an acreCrab Orchard National Wildlife RefugeGREENBRIAR
28 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources10217
25 September 1999Smokingunder an acreCrab Orchard National Wildlife RefugePROPELLER2
8 August 1997Smokingunder an acreCrab Orchard National Wildlife RefugeCOSPILLWAY
3 August 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources10163
7 July 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources10137
4 July 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources10136

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Williamson County

Storms near this place

11 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cambria in 11 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 5 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
March 2008FloodCambria$375,000In Marion, firefighters used boats to rescue 13 residents of the city's housing project. Water was up to a foot deep in some apartments. Five stranded motorists were rescued by Marion firefighters. A total of 21 persons were rescued by boat by firefighters in the city of Marion. At least a few vehicles were submerged up to their headlights. Victims were transported to a Red Cross shelter. A Marion official stated this was the worst flood since May of 1996, before the flood control project was completed. Many streets were underwater, including the main access road to Marion High School. An SUV was stranded in floodwaters. In Johnston City, most roadways were closed. A bridge was taken out by floodwaters on a side street. Route 148 was closed north of the Crab Orchard bridge. Numerous county roads were closed. Ten basements were flooded in Herrin.
January 2000Thunderstorm WindCambria$100,000Thunderstorm winds estimated near 90 MPH severely damaged a wood frame home and partially unroofed several other homes. This thunderstorm downburst originated just northeast of Carbondale in Jackson County, and caused extensive damage in the Cambria area before dissipating.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindCambria$75,000Approximately 40 trees were downed in and around Cambria as a surging storm line moved northeastward. One tree fell onto a manufactured home.
May 2004Thunderstorm WindCambria$75,000no account filed
May 2025HailCambria-An extended period of hail occurred at Cambria with initial hailstones measured to one inch increasing in size to golf ball as the supercell storm continued eastward.
July 2025Flash FloodCambria-Flash flooding was reported on Timber Trail and West Grand Avenue. Radar estimated hourly rainfall amounts for this area peaked at around 1.25. The lack of much subsequent rainfall limited the flood duration.
June 2015Flash FloodCambria-Street flooding occurred in Marion. A city intersection was impassable. Near Cambria, water was over Cambria Road in numerous locations. In Pittsburg, streets were underwater with widespread flooding.
May 2009HailCambria-Golf-ball size hail fell across much of western Williamson County from Carterville to Herrin and Cambria.
April 2007HailCambria-Large hail was reported in numerous places in northern and western parts of the county. The largest stones were half-dollar size in Herrin.
February 1999HailCambria-no account filed
April 1996HailCambria-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Williamson 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
Fredonia0.7 miles18
Fredonia (historical)0.9 miles18
Blairsville2.1 miles18
Dewmaine2.2 miles18
Colp2.7 miles18
Crab Orchard Estates2.7 miles22
Carterville2.7 miles18
Crainville3.4 miles18

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 CambriaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2443727The 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 405419. 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.