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Lerna, Illinois

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1934 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Pleasant Grove Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62440. The Survey maps it on the Mattoon East quadrangle. 226 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 741 feet above sea level.

Lerna within Coles County

On record in Lerna

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Lerna fell from 286 to 226 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
2010286
2020226-60 (-21%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 14 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

25,778 words on this township

The History of Coles County, Illinois ... Map of Coles County; History of Illinois ... History of Northwest ... Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c., &c, published 1879 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Pleasant Grove Township covers the township.

Read the chapter on Pleasant Grove Township - 25,778 words.

Fires near this place

2 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Lerna between 2015 and 2019, burning about 1 acre 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
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
27 March 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources2019-63
24 March 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources1303241

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Coles County

Storms near this place

13 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lerna in 13 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 7 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind. 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
April 1997Thunderstorm WindLerna$126,000A line of severe thunderstorms moved across Coles County causing a lot of damage. Three miles southeast of Lerna a machine shed, a small storage shed, and a grain bin were destroyed. Also, a motor home, several vehicles, and a house roof sustained minor damage. Numerous trees and tree limbs were blown down as well. At the same time in the Bushton, Fairgrange, and Charleston areas, several trees were blown down, with one causing minor damage to a building. Also, a barn roof and a grain bin were destroyed. As the storms moved further east, winds blew down numerous trees and tree limbs in the Ashmore area. One tree fell onto a house causing $1,000 in damage and several trees in the local cemetery fell, damaging some grave markers. Also, two large barns were destroyed 2 miles south of Ashmore and numerous homes and other farm buildings sustained minor damage. No injuries were reported and damage was estimated around $125,950.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindLerna$40,000A mobile home was destroyed.
August 2012Thunderstorm WindLerna$35,000Numerous trees and power lines were blown down in Lerna.
August 2009Thunderstorm WindLerna$28,000Several trees were blown down in Lerna. One tree fell on a car, while two others fell on houses, causing roof damage.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindLerna$20,000Numerous tree limbs and power lines were blown down in Lerna.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindLerna-A trained spotter estimated a wind gust of 80 mph. A large tree was blown down in his front yard.
March 2024HailLerna-no account filed
April 2011HailLerna-no account filed
April 2011HailLerna-no account filed
May 2011HailLerna-no account filed
June 2010HailLerna-no account filed
June 2008HailLerna-no account filed
February 1999HailLerna-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Coles 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
Newby2.2 miles14
Jones3.4 miles14
Rolling Green4.0 miles14
Country Club Estates4.1 miles14
Campbell4.4 miles12
Trilla4.4 miles14
Loxa5.6 miles14
Magnet6.0 miles14

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 LernaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2368215The 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 411955. 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.