Wamac, Illinois
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1914 and the latest in 1985. It lies in ZIP code area 62801. The Survey maps it on the Centralia West quadrangle. 985 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 502 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresWamac fell from 1,185 to 985 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 | 1,185 | |
| 2020 | 985 | -200 (-17%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 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.
- 1914 USGS Centralia quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1935 USGS Centralia quadrangle1:62500
- 1958 USGS Belleville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1962 USGS Belleville quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Centralia West quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Carlyle Lake quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
2 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Wamac between 2004 and 2010, burning about 12 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 July 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 7 October 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | BRINKMANN |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Wamac: 1 prospect, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Clay, Stone. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Centralia City Pit | Stone | Past Producer | ||
| Jolliff Shale Exposure | Clay | Prospect |
Storms near this place
2 since 2011Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wamac in 2 storm reports between 2011 and 2013: 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2013 | Tornado (EF0) | Wamac | - | The tornado continued to the northeast crossing from Washington County into far southeastern Clinton County, about a third of a mile west of Wilkin Road. It travelled to the northeast causing only tree damage before lifting and dissipating only three quarters of a mile west of a large mobile home park in Wamac. The path length of the tornado in Clinton County was 1.18 miles with a max path width of 20 yards. The damage for this segment was estimated to be EF0. Overall, the entire tornado path length was 4.76 miles with a max path width of 100 yards and a maximum damage rating of EF1. |
| April 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wamac | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down a row of power poles along Brookside Avenue. Also, numerous trees, tree limbs and power lines were blown down. |
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 Wamac | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q575277 | 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 420502. 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.





