Fairbury, Illinois
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1957 and the latest in 2001. It stands in Indian Grove Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61739. The Survey maps it on the Fairbury quadrangle. 3,633 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 682 feet above sea level.
On record in Fairbury
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 2 records
Thomas A. Beach Houselisted 1983
Fairbury City Halllisted 1996
Population over time
2 figuresFairbury fell from 3,757 to 3,633 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 | 3,757 | |
| 2020 | 3,633 | -124 (-3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 12 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.
- 1957 USGS Colfax quadrangle1:62500
- 1958 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Fairbury quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1986 USGS Fairbury quadrangle1:24000
- 1990 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 2001 USGS Fairbury quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
6 since 2010Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Fairbury in 2010, burning about 171 acres in total. 1 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 | 5 |
| Natural | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | FAIRBURY2 |
| 15 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | FAIRBURY |
| 6 June 2010 | Natural | 5.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | AVOCA |
| 13 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 75 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | DAVIS |
| 1 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | GOULD |
| 24 March 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | ALLAN |
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 Fairbury: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fairbury | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
28 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Fairbury in 28 storm reports between 2000 and 2026: 15 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 2 tornado, 2 funnel cloud. 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 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fairbury | $10,000 | A huge tree fell against a house in Fairbury causing significant damage to the front of the house. |
| October 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fairbury | $2,000 | Multiple large tree limbs and power lines were blown down. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fairbury | $1,000 | Several tree limbs were knocked onto power lines and some large limbs fell onto the roads blocking traffic. |
| April 2026 | Tornado (EF1) | Fairbury | - | An EF-1 tornado with peak winds around 90 mph dropped in rural northeast McLean County before crossing into Livingston County southwest of Fairbury. In the few minutes the tornado survived in Livingston County, it damaged trees and a machine shed. |
| December 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fairbury | - | Several utility poles were blown down. A farm outbuilding had its roof torn off and sustained siding damage. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fairbury | - | A 911 dispatch center reported power lines down and damage to trees in Fairbury. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fairbury | - | Trees were blown down. |
| July 2022 | Hail | Fairbury | - | Golf ball size hail was reported south of Fairbury, which damaged corn. |
| June 2021 | Hail | Fairbury | - | A photo of quarter size hail in Fairbury was shared on social media. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fairbury | - | Several trees, tree limbs and power lines were blown down in Fairbury. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fairbury | - | A few large tree limbs were blown down. |
| May 2019 | Funnel Cloud | Fairbury | - | A funnel cloud was observed near Route 24. |
| June 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fairbury | - | Power lines were blown down. |
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fairbury | - | A wind gust to 70 mph was measured by an anemometer on a vehicle. |
| June 2017 | Flash Flood | Fairbury | - | Heavy rain caused flash flooding near Indian Creek Golf and Country Club. |
| December 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fairbury | - | One half mile east of Fairbury on U.S. 24. Power Pole down due to winds. |
| April 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fairbury | - | Numerous tree limbs up to 4 inches in diameter were blown down along and south of a line from Fairbury to Chatsworth. |
| October 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fairbury | - | Trees were blown down. |
| July 2020 | Hail | Fairbury | - | no account filed |
| August 2012 | Hail | Fairbury | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Fairbury | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Hail | Fairbury | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Fairbury | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fairbury | - | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Funnel Cloud | Fairbury | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Hail | Fairbury | - | no account filed |
| April 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fairbury | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Tornado (F0) | Fairbury | - | 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.
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 Fairbury | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q575284 | 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 408158. 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.







