BlockBefore

Beech, Kentucky

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1891 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the Haddix census division. It lies in ZIP code area 41339. It stands on Duff Fork. The Survey maps it on the Buckhorn quadrangle.

Beech within Breathitt County

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 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.

Fires near this place

241 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 241 fires within 5 miles of Beech between 1997 and 2020, burning about 16,724 acres in total. None started naturally. 60 were 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 burning108
Arson/incendiarism60
Missing data/not specified/undetermined57
Recreation and ceremony13
Smoking2
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
9 September 1999Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
8 September 2007Debris and open burning289 acresKentucky Division of ForestryBARWICK
7 September 1999Arson/incendiarism3.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
29 September 2007Recreation and ceremony2.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
24 September 2007Debris and open burning10 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
23 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined415 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
20 September 2019Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryBOWLING CREEK RD.
19 September 2007Debris and open burning1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Breathitt County

Storms near this place

4 since 2011

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Beech in 4 storm reports between 2011 and 2026: 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood. 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
March 2026Thunderstorm WindBeech$1,000A report from social media indicated that several trees had been blown down along Bowlings Creek Road near Buckhorn. There were also reports of power outages in this portion of the county.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindBeech-A tree was reportedly blown down along Bowlings Creek Road about 1.5 miles from the mouth of the holler.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindBeech-A member of the public reported two trees blown down near the mouth of Bowling Creek.
February 2011FloodBeech-Bowlings Creek Rd was closed due to water over the road.

Every storm recorded in Breathitt 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
Altro2.6 miles13
Crockettsville3.0 miles13
Barwick3.3 miles13
Wolf Coal3.4 miles13
Talbert3.9 miles13
Roosevelt4.1 miles13
Whick4.5 miles13
Morris Fork4.7 miles12

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 BeechAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q65079190The 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 510509. 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.