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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.

Drakesboro within Muhlenberg County

Population over time

2 figures

Drakesboro 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.

YearPeople Change
2010515
2020481-34 (-7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 15 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

79 since 1997

Regional 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/undetermined26
Debris and open burning18
Arson/incendiarism17
Recreation and ceremony10
Equipment and vehicle use3
Smoking3
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Natural1

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
26 September 2008Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
22 September 2010Debris and open burning15 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
2 September 1999Arson/incendiarism300 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
19 September 1999Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
8 August 2010Debris and open burning7.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryDOG LADY
31 August 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryBEECH CREEK
22 August 1999Debris and open burning35 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
17 August 2008Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Muhlenberg County

Storms near this place

10 since 2000

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2024Thunderstorm WindDrakesboro$75,000Extensive 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 2019Thunderstorm WindDrakesboro$25,000Multiple 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 2022Flash FloodDrakesboro$20,000Flash flooding was reported in the Drakesboro area. Several ditches overflowed, and yards flooded. Some basements were flooded.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindDrakesboro$10,000Power poles were leaning over a state road.
January 2000Thunderstorm WindDrakesboro$4,000Several trees were down.
April 2006HailDrakesboro-Dime size hail covered the ground like snow.
August 2003Thunderstorm WindDrakesboro-A spotter reported trees down.
November 2000Thunderstorm WindDrakesboro-Trees were blown down.
May 2011Funnel CloudDrakesboro-no account filed
April 2007HailDrakesboro-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Muhlenberg 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
Peanut (historical)0.5 miles15
Elk Valley (historical)1.1 miles15
Nonnell1.5 miles15
Sunrise (historical)1.5 miles15
Browder1.5 miles15
Ebenezer1.9 miles15
Bevier2.6 miles15
Beech Creek2.9 miles15

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 DrakesboroAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2036803The 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.