BlockWest Salem, Illinois
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1949 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Salem No. 1 precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 62476. The Survey maps it on the West Salem quadrangle. 786 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 525 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresWest Salem fell from 897 to 786 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 | 897 | |
| 2020 | 786 | -111 (-12%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 9 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.
- 1949 USGS Olney quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Belleville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1962 USGS Belleville quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS West Salem quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Olney quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Storms near this place
23 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names West Salem in 23 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 5 hail, 5 heavy rain, 5 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood. The reports record 2 injuries. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Salem | 2 hurt, $25,000 | Twelve power poles were knocked down. |
| July 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Salem | $85,000 | Scattered straight-line wind damage was observed across much of the northern half of the county. Within the overall area of scattered damage, more concentrated damage was located in West Salem. In West Salem, numerous large tree limbs were broken, and a couple of trees were uprooted. Elsewhere around northern Edwards County, hundreds of tree limbs and about a half-dozen trees were blown down. Downed trees and limbs damaged a couple of homes, garages, and a pickup truck. Two barns were blown down between West Salem and Bone Gap. Several power poles were blown over. Peak winds were estimated near 80 mph. The damaging wind event continued east into Wabash County. |
| March 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Salem | $10,000 | A brick building on the town square had part of an exterior wall collapse due to downburst winds. |
| May 2011 | Lightning | West Salem | $10,000 | Lightning struck an oil tank battery, causing them to explode. |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Salem | $3,000 | Trees were knocked down. |
| May 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Salem | $2,000 | A healthy tree was downed across Highway 130. |
| March 2020 | Flash Flood | West Salem | - | Water was flowing across a county road estimated to be half a foot deep. |
| September 2018 | Flash Flood | West Salem | - | Numerous roads were flooded across the county. |
| March 2015 | Heavy Rain | West Salem | - | The storm-total rainfall amount was 3.20 inches. |
| April 2015 | Heavy Rain | West Salem | - | Illinois Route 130 was under water near the Richland County line. Local streams were out of their banks. |
| July 2013 | Heavy Rain | West Salem | - | A trained spotter reported 5.10 inches of rain over the past three days. |
| September 2012 | Heavy Rain | West Salem | - | The storm total rainfall was 6.30 inches. Approximately 2.3 inches fell during the overnight hours. |
| September 2009 | Heavy Rain | West Salem | - | Route 130 was flooded and reduced to one lane of traffic for about a mile. A trained spotter three miles west of West Salem measured 5.1 inches, mostly during the evening. |
| October 2007 | Hail | West Salem | - | Golf-ball size hail fell from a supercell thunderstorm that originated over Franklin County and tracked northeast across the Lower Wabash Valley. |
| October 2007 | Tornado (EF0) | West Salem | - | A funnel cloud was observed for a 20 to 30 minute period by numerous law enforcement personnel and at least one trained spotter. The trained spotter reported an apparent brief touchdown. The event was witnessed mostly from nearby Wabash County at a distance of about 3 to 10 miles. No damage was located, possibly due to the sparsely populated farmland over which it occurred. Due to their distance from the funnel, eyewitnesses were not certain of the exact duration of the touchdown. This funnel cloud and tornado was produced by the same long-lived supercell that crossed the Rend Lake area of southern Jefferson and northern Franklin County. |
| July 2002 | Lightning | West Salem | - | A lightning strike caused a grass fire. Heavy rain following the initial lightning extinguished the fire. |
| June 1997 | Flood | West Salem | - | Up to 2 inches of rain per hour fell across northern Edwards County. Rainfall totals near 3 inches were estimated by radar. Water was over many roads, State Route 130 north of Albion was barricaded to traffic. |
| June 2021 | Funnel Cloud | West Salem | - | no account filed |
| April 2003 | Hail | West Salem | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | West Salem | - | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Hail | West Salem | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Hail | West Salem | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Flood | West Salem | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mills Prairie (historical) | 2.1 miles | 13 | |
| Samsville | 3.5 miles | 8 | |
| Maple Grove | 4.8 miles | 9 | |
| Bone Gap | 5.1 miles | 18 | |
| Marion | 5.9 miles | 9 | |
| Black | 6.4 miles | 8 | |
| Bennington | 6.7 miles | 10 | |
| Lexington (historical) | 7.6 miles | 18 |
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 West Salem | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q728400 | 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 420909. 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.
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.