Dowell, Illinois
18 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1910 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Elk Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62927. It stands on Halfmile Creek. The Survey maps it on the Elkville quadrangle. 368 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 400 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresDowell fell from 408 to 368 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 | 408 | |
| 2020 | 368 | -40 (-10%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 18 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.
- 1910 USGS Herrin quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1936 USGS Herrin quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1949 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1950 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1964 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1968 USGS Elkville quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS Carbondale quadrangle1:100000
- 1986 USGS Carbondale quadrangle1:100000
- 1987 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
6 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Dowell between 2004 and 2008, burning about 165 acres in total. None started naturally. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 September 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 1 |
| 10 April 2005 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 2 March 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 18 March 2005 | Debris and open burning | 160 acres | Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 19 February 2004 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 30 October 2004 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
6 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Dowell in 6 storm reports between 1998 and 2019: 4 hail, 1 tornado, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2012 | Tornado (EF1) | Dowell | $75,000 | The tornado began 3.5 miles northwest of De Soto along Truax Traer Road and traveled northeast to 3.5 southeast of DuQuoin. Dozens of trees were uprooted and snapped. One barn was destroyed and several sheds and carports were damaged. A few homes had minor damage to siding and roof shingles. The tornado was observed and recorded by numerous spotters and citizens. Peak winds were about 90 mph. |
| June 2019 | Flash Flood | Dowell | - | Numerous county roads were flooded across the county. Water was over U.S. Highway 51 just south of Dowell. |
| April 2007 | Hail | Dowell | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Dowell | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Dowell | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Dowell | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elkville | 2.1 miles | 18 | |
| Hallidayboro | 3.5 miles | 18 | |
| Vergennes | 5.8 miles | 16 | |
| Ward | 6.2 miles | 18 | |
| Grubbs | 6.7 miles | 16 | |
| Matthews Junction | 7.3 miles | 16 | |
| De Soto | 8.4 miles | 18 | |
| Oraville | 9.3 miles | 19 |
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 Dowell | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1983555 | 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 407365. 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.










