Earlington, Kentucky
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1907 and the latest in 1983. It stands in the Madisonville census division. It lies in ZIP code area 42410. The Survey maps it on the Madisonville West quadrangle. 1,257 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 423 feet above sea level.
On record in Earlington
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 2 records
Oakmoorlisted 1988- Hotel Earlingtonlisted 1988
Population over time
3 figuresEarlington fell from 1,649 to 1,257 between 2000 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 1,649 | |
| 2010 | 1,413 | -236 (-14%) |
| 2020 | 1,257 | -156 (-11%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 14 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.
- 1907 USGS Earlington quadrangle1:48000
- 1909 USGS Earlington quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1954 USGS Earlington quadrangle1:62500
- 1954 USGS Evansville quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Evansville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Evansville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Madisonville West quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1983 USGS Madisonville quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
34 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 34 fires within 5 miles of Earlington between 1998 and 2017, burning about 380 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 3 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 burning | 13 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 7 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | B & K SAWMILL |
| 6 September 2010 | Recreation and ceremony | 10 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | LABOR |
| 3 August 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | 2 FENCE |
| 20 August 2007 | Debris and open burning | 74 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 31 July 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 114 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | BIRDS NEST |
| 23 July 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 2.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 1 July 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Kentucky Division of Forestry | ROCK SPARK |
| 24 May 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Kentucky Division of Forestry | EARLINGTON |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
16 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Earlington in 16 storm reports between 2003 and 2025: 5 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 2 hail, 2 heavy rain. The reports record 40 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2005 | Tornado (F4) | Earlington | 40 hurt, $31,000,000 | This violent tornado reached its peak intensity on the north side of Earlington, near the beginning of its track. Peak winds there were estimated near 220 MPH. Several houses in this area, on either side of U.S. Highway 41, were levelled. Large oak trees were reduced to nubs, and the ground was scoured to bare dirt. A steel beam was carried some distance and became wedged against trees and other debris. 24 people were treated for injuries at a local hospital, and three of the injuries were critical. About 151 homes and buildings were destroyed, 67 suffered major damage, and 303 received minor damage. Damage indications, as well as eyewitness accounts, indicate the occurrence of multiple vortices near Earlington. The tornado continued northeast and weakened, crossing the Pennyrile Parkway at mile marker 41. The tornado lifted less than a mile from the Mclean County border. The average path width was 525 yards. The tornado was close to a half mile wide in places. |
| July 2022 | Flash Flood | Earlington | $4,000 | Flash flooding was reported up to the back porch in the garage of a home. Six to eight inches of water was up to the front porch step. A Kentucky mesonet site in the immediate area measured 4.80 inches of rain. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Earlington | $2,000 | Tree limbs were reported down in the Earlington area as a line of storms moved eastward through the county. |
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Earlington | $2,000 | In southern Hopkins County, damaging thunderstorm winds gusted up to 62 mph. A trained spotter in Mortons Gap estimated winds gusted to 60 mph, causing a power outage and snapping a large tree. Another nearby large tree was uprooted onto a home. A Kentucky mesonet site just east of Earlington measured a wind gust to 62 mph. |
| July 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Earlington | $2,000 | Large tree limbs were blown down. |
| July 2020 | Flood | Earlington | - | Minor street and yard flooding occurred. |
| April 2016 | Tornado (EF0) | Earlington | - | Law enforcement personnel reported a brief tornado near Earlington. No damage was located. Based on radar indications, the parent circulation of this tornado also produced the funnel cloud that was earlier reported west of Mortons Gap. The parent circulation crossed over U.S. Highway 41 less than a mile south of Earlington. |
| July 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Earlington | - | A wind gust to 66 mph was measured by the Kentucky mesonet site near Earlington. |
| May 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Earlington | - | A trained spotter estimated a wind gust to 60 mph. |
| March 2009 | Hail | Earlington | - | Quarter-size hail fell on the south side of Earlington. |
| April 2009 | Heavy Rain | Earlington | - | U.S. Highway 41 was flooded out. Numerous other smaller roads were flooded. A mesonet site in Hopkins County measured 1.03 inches. |
| June 2009 | Flash Flood | Earlington | - | Several roads in the Earlington area were covered with water at least three inches deep. Several roads in the city of Dawson Springs were impassable. A mesonet site near Madisonville reported 0.94 inches in 30 minutes, and a total of 2.97 inches in three hours. |
| May 2008 | Flash Flood | Earlington | - | Six inches of water was flowing over U.S. Highway 41 at Earlington. Both sides of the road were flooded over on U.S. Highway 41 by the county central high school. A spotter reported two to three inches of rain in an hour. |
| October 2004 | Heavy Rain | Earlington | - | Six inches of water was over U.S. Highway 41. |
| March 2017 | Funnel Cloud | Earlington | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Earlington | - | no account filed |
Newspapers printed here
8,848 digitised pages1 paper published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 1,513 issues, 8,848 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
| Newspaper | Published |
|---|---|
| The Bee | 1889 to 19?? |
What the paper printed
13,443 wordsFront pages of the local paper, read from the Library of Congress scans: 6 issues spread across its run from 1892 to 1916, 13,443 words in total. Each is reproduced on its own page, exactly as the recogniser returned it.
These pages read less well than anything else here, and the number is worth stating: about three words in four come through cleanly, against nine in ten for the building records. An 1896 broadsheet sets eight-point type in seven columns on microfilm, which is the hardest thing in this archive to read by machine. We tested our own recognisers against the Library's and they were not better, so the Library's text is what appears, with the wholly unreadable columns removed. Read it as a guide to what the paper covered, and follow the link to the scan before quoting anything.
| Issue | Paper | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1892-04-28 | The Bee | 4,390 words |
| 1892-06-23 | The Bee | 3,010 words |
| 1892-08-25 | The Bee | 2,298 words |
| 1892-10-20 | The Bee | 1,819 words |
| 1892-12-22 | The Bee | 1,640 words |
| 1916-12-29 | The Bee | 286 words |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Side Heights | 0.6 miles | 14 | |
| Hecla | 1.1 miles | 14 | |
| Wesco | 1.3 miles | 14 | |
| Dozier Heights | 1.5 miles | 14 | |
| Brentwood | 1.6 miles | 14 | |
| Barnsley | 1.7 miles | 12 | |
| Flat Creek (historical) | 2.2 miles | 12 | |
| Grapevine | 2.3 miles | 12 |
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 Earlington | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3180829 | 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 491420. 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.







