Drakesboro, Kentucky
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1911 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the Drakesboro census division. It lies in ZIP code area 42337. It stands on Plum Creek. The Survey maps it on the Drakesboro quadrangle. 481 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 443 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresDrakesboro fell from 515 to 481 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 | 515 | |
| 2020 | 481 | -34 (-7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 15 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.
- 1911 USGS Drakesboro quadrangle1:48000
- 1913 USGS Drakesboro quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS Drakesboro quadrangle1:24000
- 1954 USGS Evansville quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Evansville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Evansville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1963 USGS Drakesboro quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1983 USGS Madisonville quadrangle1:100000
- 1997 USGS Drakesboro quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
79 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 79 fires within 5 miles of Drakesboro between 1997 and 2018, burning about 2,296 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 17 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 26 |
| Debris and open burning | 18 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 17 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 10 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Natural | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 September 2008 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 22 September 2010 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 2 September 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 19 September 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 8 August 2010 | Debris and open burning | 7.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | DOG LADY |
| 31 August 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | BEECH CREEK |
| 22 August 1999 | Debris and open burning | 35 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 17 August 2008 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
10 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Drakesboro in 10 storm reports between 2000 and 2024: 6 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 funnel cloud, 1 flash 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Drakesboro | $75,000 | Extensive damage occurred in Drakesboro from straight line winds. Roads were blocked mainly closer to the tornado track towards Beechmont. According for the EF-1 tornado and straight line wind damage, along with morning storms, a large majority of Muhlenberg County was without power late evening. |
| March 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Drakesboro | $25,000 | Multiple trees were blown down around the Beechmont and Drakesboro areas. There was one motor vehicle accident due to the debris. Power lines were damaged. |
| July 2022 | Flash Flood | Drakesboro | $20,000 | Flash flooding was reported in the Drakesboro area. Several ditches overflowed, and yards flooded. Some basements were flooded. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Drakesboro | $10,000 | Power poles were leaning over a state road. |
| January 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Drakesboro | $4,000 | Several trees were down. |
| April 2006 | Hail | Drakesboro | - | Dime size hail covered the ground like snow. |
| August 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Drakesboro | - | A spotter reported trees down. |
| November 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Drakesboro | - | Trees were blown down. |
| May 2011 | Funnel Cloud | Drakesboro | - | no account filed |
| April 2007 | Hail | Drakesboro | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peanut (historical) | 0.5 miles | 15 | |
| Elk Valley (historical) | 1.1 miles | 15 | |
| Nonnell | 1.5 miles | 15 | |
| Sunrise (historical) | 1.5 miles | 15 | |
| Browder | 1.5 miles | 15 | |
| Ebenezer | 1.9 miles | 15 | |
| Bevier | 2.6 miles | 15 | |
| Beech Creek | 2.9 miles | 15 |
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 Drakesboro | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2036803 | 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 491099. 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.








