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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.

Dowell within Jackson County

Population over time

2 figures

Dowell 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.

YearPeople Change
2010408
2020368-40 (-10%)

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

6 since 2004

Regional 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/undetermined2
Equipment and vehicle use2
Debris and open burning2

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
25 September 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources1
10 April 2005Debris and open burning1.0 acresIllinois State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
2 March 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
18 March 2005Debris and open burning160 acresIllinois State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
19 February 2004Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreIllinois State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
30 October 2004Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresIllinois State Fire Marshal's Officenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Jackson County

Storms near this place

6 since 1998

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
March 2012Tornado (EF1)Dowell$75,000The 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 2019Flash FloodDowell-Numerous county roads were flooded across the county. Water was over U.S. Highway 51 just south of Dowell.
April 2007HailDowell-no account filed
April 2002HailDowell-no account filed
June 1998HailDowell-no account filed
May 1998HailDowell-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Jackson 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
Elkville2.1 miles18
Hallidayboro3.5 miles18
Vergennes5.8 miles16
Ward6.2 miles18
Grubbs6.7 miles16
Matthews Junction7.3 miles16
De Soto8.4 miles18
Oraville9.3 miles19

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 DowellAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1983555The 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.