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Empire, Kentucky

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1912 and the latest in 1983. It stands in the Crofton census division. It lies in ZIP code area 42217. The Survey maps it on the Crofton quadrangle. It stands 515 feet above sea level.

Empire within Christian County

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 12 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

21 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 21 fires within 5 miles of Empire between 1999 and 2019, burning about 585 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 2 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/undetermined8
Recreation and ceremony5
Smoking2
Arson/incendiarism2
Debris and open burning2
Railroad operations and maintenance1
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
7 September 1999Smoking1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
16 July 2007Recreation and ceremony35 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
28 June 2012Missing data/not specified/undetermined88 acresKentucky Division of ForestryQUAD COUNT
26 June 2012Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreKentucky Division of ForestryROADSIDE F
5 April 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined8.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryTRESSLE
22 April 2007Debris and open burning2.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
7 March 2007Missing data/not specified/undetermined7.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
6 March 2012Recreation and ceremony22 acresKentucky Division of ForestryHOOSIER

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Christian County

Storms near this place

4 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Empire in 4 storm reports between 2010 and 2025: 1 flash flood, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 funnel cloud. 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 WindEmpire$5,000A COOP observer reported that a large tree was uprooted due to an afternoon thunderstorm moving across northern Christian County while law enforcement reported that, further north, a tree was downed on Madisonville Rd.
June 2010Flash FloodEmpire$3,000Water was up to the headlights of vehicles at the intersection of U.S. Highway 41 and County Road 800 in Crofton. High water covered some roadways in the Empire and Mannington areas. Radar estimated 3 to 5 inches of rain fell in two and one-half hours. A co-operative observer in Crofton measured a storm total of 6.97 inches.
May 2025Funnel CloudEmpire-A funnel cloud was reported on KY-41 on the north side of Crofton.
May 2024HailEmpire-Hail estimated to half dollar size fell north of Crofton as a supercell storm moved through northern Christian County.

Every storm recorded in Christian 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
Old Empire (historical)1.8 miles12
Mannington2.4 miles12
Crofton2.7 miles12
Grapevine (historical)2.8 miles12
Castleberry (historical)3.3 miles12
Adams (historical)3.6 miles12
East Macedonia (historical)4.8 miles12
Thomas Store (historical)6.2 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 EmpireAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q5373995The 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 491774. 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.