BlockBefore

Highland, Illinois

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1906 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Helvetia Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62249. The Survey maps it on the Highland quadrangle. 9,991 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 551 feet above sea level.

Highland within Madison County

Population over time

2 figures

Highland grew from 9,919 to 9,991 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
20109,919
20209,991+72 (+1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 12 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.

In the county-history sources

85 words on this township

The county-history sources names this settlement in its chapter on Helvetia Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Helvetia Township - it names this place 1 more 1 time.

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Highland: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
Highland PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Madison County

Storms near this place

41 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Highland in 41 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 24 thunderstorm wind, 15 hail, 2 tornado. 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
May 2001Tornado (F0)Highland$50,000A small tornado formed near Highland High School causing minor damage, but a lot of shook up people. The tornado passed over the school gymnasium ripping 6 air conditioner units off their bases. Minor damage also occurred to the roof of the gym and to the ceiling of the second story classrooms. The tornado then crossed Route 160 causing some minor damage to farm outbuildings.
April 1994Thunderstorm WindHighland$50,000A billboard sign built to withstand wind gusts to 60 mph was blown over. Numerous trees in the area were also knocked down.
July 1999Thunderstorm WindHighland$50,000no account filed
June 2000Thunderstorm WindHighland$15,000Local law enforcement reported scattered trees and power lines down across the city. One vehicle was seriously damaged by a downed tree.
May 2022Thunderstorm WindHighland$7,000Thunderstorm winds blew off some shingles from the roof of a house as well as several tree limbs.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindHighland$5,000Thunderstorm winds knocked one tree down. The tree took out a transformer and power pole as it fell.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindHighland-Thunderstorm winds snapped one large tree branch from a large healthy tree.
March 2021Thunderstorm WindHighland-Additional significant damage was noted to the south of the tornado path, likely associated with a strong surge of the rear flank downdraft. This damage, with straight line windspeeds nearing 80 to locally 90 mph, included two large barns that were destroyed, along with some large trees that were toppled in a concentrated area across two neighborhoods off Poplar Street.
March 2021Thunderstorm WindHighland-Thunderstorm winds caused moderate roof damage to a business on the northside of Highland. Also, several large tree branches were snapped off.
June 2019Thunderstorm WindHighland-Thunderstorm winds blew down several large tree limbs just north northwest of town.
February 2014Thunderstorm WindHighland-Thunderstorm winds blew off some siding on a few homes as well as some shingles in the Highland area. A few small trees were blown down in Highland.
May 2011Thunderstorm WindHighland-Thunderstorm winds blew down numerous large tree limbs.
February 2011Thunderstorm WindHighland-Thunderstorm winds blew down several power lines, tree limbs and signs througout town.
August 2010Thunderstorm WindHighland-Thunderstorm winds blew down a tree onto Iberg Road near Sugar Creek.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindHighland-Thunderstorm winds blew over a machine shed about 2 miles south of Highland on Illinois Route 160. Some equipment that had been inside the shed were damaged. Also, another building on the same farm had about a third of its western wall blown out and a 14 foot sliding door on the shed was blown 500 feet off its rollers and over the top of another building. Several power lines and numerous tree limbs were blown down in the area.
August 2008Thunderstorm WindHighland-Numerous large tree limbs were blown down around town.
October 2007Thunderstorm WindHighland-Numerous large trees broken off half way up the trunks. Also, numerous tree limbs and power lines were blown down.
April 2006Tornado (F1)Highland-The tornado first formed near the intersection of Ellis and Acorn Roads where it destroyed two grain bins. The tornado traveled across an open field and then hit a farm one quarter mile west of Highway 160. The home sustained minor roof, window and siding damage. A large machine shed was destroyed with debris thrown three quarter to one mile to the northeast. A garage was also destroyed. A number of power poles wee snapped off just south of town along Old Trenton Road. A large ranch home just north of this location sustained considerable roof and window damage. Several large trees in the area were also downed.
November 2005HailHighland-Local law enforcement reported nickel size hail.
September 2003Thunderstorm WindHighland-Several power poles were broken by thunderstorm winds along Route 143 in Highland. The sign at a Dairy Queen on Route 143 was destroyed. Some trees and power lines were also downed in other parts of town as well.
May 2003Thunderstorm WindHighland-Thunderstorm wind gusts blew a tractor trailer over just east of I-70 and northeast of Highland.
June 2002Thunderstorm WindHighland-Thunderstorm winds uprooted trees, downed large limbs, and pulled down power lines in Highland.
April 2002Thunderstorm WindHighland-Thunderstorm wind gusts caused scattered damage in the Arkansas and Buckeye road areas south of Highland. One garage door was damaged and several windows broken at one home. A tin roofed pole barn suffered significant damage. Several trees in the area were also damaged.
April 1998HailHighland-Spotters reported 3/4 inch hail.
March 2025HailHighland-no account filed
March 2025HailHighland-no account filed
March 2025HailHighland-no account filed
March 2025HailHighland-no account filed
March 2025HailHighland-no account filed
April 2012HailHighland-no account filed
April 2011Thunderstorm WindHighland-no account filed
May 2008HailHighland-no account filed
May 2008HailHighland-no account filed
September 2008HailHighland-no account filed
April 2007HailHighland-no account filed
August 2005Thunderstorm WindHighland-no account filed
August 2005Thunderstorm WindHighland-no account filed
April 2001HailHighland-no account filed
February 1999HailHighland-no account filed
April 1997Thunderstorm WindHighland-no account filed
May 1996HailHighland-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Madison 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
Sebastopol4.2 miles11
Saint Morgan5.4 miles12
Saint Jacob5.4 miles16
Grantfork6.3 miles11
Marine6.5 miles14
Kaufman10.2 miles14
Alhambra10.8 miles11
Green Castle11.0 miles11

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 HighlandAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q576279The 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 410218. 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.

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.