BlockWheeler, Illinois
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1998. It stands in North Muddy Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62479. The Survey maps it on the Wheeler quadrangle. 96 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 564 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresWheeler fell from 147 to 96 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 | 147 | |
| 2020 | 96 | -51 (-35%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 11 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.
- 1953 USGS Teutopolis quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Wheeler quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Effingham quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1998 USGS Wheeler quadrangle1:24000
Storms near this place
23 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wheeler in 23 storm reports between 1999 and 2026: 8 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail, 6 flash flood, 3 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wheeler | 1 hurt, $26,000 | Numerous trees, tree limbs, and power lines were blown down. A man was injured by a falling tree limb in Wheeler. Shingles and tin were blown off a roof in Newton. A semi trailer was blown over between Wheeler and Newton. |
| October 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wheeler | $65,000 | Two concrete silos were destroyed and some cattle were injured north of Wheeler. |
| February 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wheeler | $20,000 | Several trees were blown down. |
| October 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wheeler | $15,000 | Numerous trees were blown down.| |
| May 2003 | Tornado (F1) | Wheeler | $15,000 | A tornado briefly touched down damaging the roofs on two homes, blew down numerous trees and power lines and damaged a couple of sheds. No injuries were reported. |
| October 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wheeler | $12,000 | Several 4 to 8-inch diameter tree limbs were blown down and a 3-foot diameter tree was uprooted. |
| February 2026 | Tornado (EF0) | Wheeler | $10,000 | Video from a storm chaser showed a tornado develop about one mile southeast of Wheeler. The tornado caused minor damage to trees as it travelled northeast across Highway 33 before dissipating just east of N 500th St. |
| August 2022 | Flash Flood | Wheeler | - | All roads out of Newton were flooded. |
| May 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wheeler | - | Railroad crossing arms were broken off. |
| June 2015 | Flash Flood | Wheeler | - | For the third time in one week, heavy rain produced flash flooding in Jasper County. Rainfall amounts of 2.00 to 4.00 in less than three hours quickly flooded most rural roads in the northern and eastern part of the county, especially from Rose Hill to Willow Hill. Water made parts of Illinois Routes 33, 49 and 130 impassable from just south of Hidalgo to northeast of Newton. |
| September 2014 | Flash Flood | Wheeler | - | Heavy downpours which produced 2 to 3 inches of rain per hour between 2230-0030 local time resulted in flash flooding across much of Jasper County. Numerous rural roads were impassable, streets were flooded in Newton, and parts of Illinois Route 33 from Newton to the Crawford County line, as well as Illinois Route 130 just south of Newton, were closed. The flooding subsided within three hours. |
| June 2013 | Flash Flood | Wheeler | - | Numerous thunderstorms produced 3 to 5 inches of rain on already saturated ground in southwest Jasper County. Most rural roads between Wheeler and Bogota were inundated. The flooding on the roads quickly subsided by late afternoon. |
| May 2009 | Flash Flood | Wheeler | - | Heavy rain of 2.50 to 3.50 inches of rain in two hours produced widespread flooding in much of Jasper County. All of the county roads were flooded, with at least two roads closed due to high water. |
| June 2009 | Flash Flood | Wheeler | - | Thunderstorms with heavy rainfall of nearly 5.00 inches produced flash flooding in a narrow band across central Jasper County. Numerous roads were inundated in and around the city of Newton. |
| April 2006 | Tornado (F2) | Wheeler | - | A tornado formed just north of 700th Avenue in Effingham County, on the Effingham/Jasper County line. It produced minor tree and barn damage to a farm at this location, and tracked to the northeast. The tornado struck a mobile home just inside the Jasper County line, and completely destroyed the home. The debris was blown several hundred yards into a field, with the home's refrigerator blown 1/4 mile into a field. The debris from the mobile home struck an adjacent automobile, and crushed the roof. The car was also pushed about 15 feet in the direction of impact. The tornado continued northeast, causing significant tree damage, and minor damage to a few homes and outbuildings. |
| May 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wheeler | - | Numerous trees and power lines were blown down between Wheeler and Newton. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wheeler | - | A line of severe storms moved through Jasper County. Five power poles were blown down on IL Route 33 near Wheeler. In Newton, a new drive-in movie screen was destroyed. A storage building on the fairgrounds was destroyed. Also, 5 miles south of Newton, a machine shed was damaged, a mobile home sustained minor damage, and the township voting precinct trailer was destroyed. No injuries were reported. |
| August 2022 | Hail | Wheeler | - | no account filed |
| April 2013 | Hail | Wheeler | - | no account filed |
| August 2012 | Hail | Wheeler | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Wheeler | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Wheeler | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Wheeler | - | 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 Wheeler | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2671831 | 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 420989. 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.