BlockBefore

Foraker, Kentucky

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1982. It stands in the Salyersville census division. It lies in ZIP code area 41465. It stands on Cranes Nest Branch. The Survey maps it on the Seitz quadrangle. It stands 892 feet above sea level.

Foraker within Magoffin County

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 13 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 Foraker between 1997 and 2020, burning about 8,355 acres in total. None started naturally. 43 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 burning107
Missing data/not specified/undetermined55
Arson/incendiarism43
Recreation and ceremony33
Equipment and vehicle use3

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
4 September 2011Debris and open burning15 acresKentucky Division of ForestryMIDDLE PUNCHEON
25 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
13 August 2007Debris and open burning20 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
8 June 2000Debris and open burning4.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
27 June 2012Recreation and ceremony2.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryGOSE BRANC
1 May 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryCOW CRK. CHURCH
9 April 2014Debris and open burning20 acresKentucky Division of ForestryPUNCHEON CREEK RD
9 April 2012Recreation and ceremony7.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryDOWN AROUN

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Magoffin County

Storms near this place

15 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Foraker in 15 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 8 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 3 hail, 1 tornado. 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 1996Flash FloodForaker$10,000no account filed
May 2023Tornado (EF1)Foraker$1,000An NWS Survey Team, in conjunction with Magoffin County Emergency Management, confirmed that an EF-1 Tornado touched down on a hillside southwest of Board Tree Rd, crossed the road and then traveled through the holler/drainage along Williams Arnett Cemetery Rd. It then climbed up the adjacent ridgeline before weakening and dissipating. Several structures sustained minor damage, and many trees were snapped or uprooted.
April 2015Flash FloodForaker$1,000About a foot of water was flowing across Hwy 30, making the road impassable.
April 2025HailForaker-Multiple social media videos showed hail falling near Stable Branch Road and KY-30, just north of the Foraker community. Lots of smaller hail was scattered on the ground, but there were also multiple quarter-sized stones visible in the videos.
April 2025Flash FloodForaker-Pictures on social media show flood waters overtopping a bridge at the intersection of Highway 30 and 1090, south of the Hendricks Community.
May 2023Thunderstorm WindForaker-NWS Storm Survey showed large limbs of a tree broken, and all facing toward the path of a tornado -- likely inflow winds into the storm on the outskirts of the tornado.
May 2023Thunderstorm WindForaker-NWS Storm Survey showed that high winds caused softwood trunks to snap. All trees were facing toward the patch of a tornado - likely due to inflow winds into the storm on the outskirts of the tornado.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindForaker-A tree was blown down on Highway 30 near the Magoffin and Breathitt county line.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindForaker-An NWS employee saw a large tree limb that had been broken by the thunderstorm gust front and subsequently fell onto KY-30.
May 2019HailForaker-A trained spotter observed nickel sized hail near Hendricks.
June 2019Thunderstorm WindForaker-An NWS Employee observed large limbs down along Kentucky Highway 30 southwest of Hendricks.
July 2015Thunderstorm WindForaker-Numerous trees and large limbs were blown down near Hendricks.
July 2015Thunderstorm WindForaker-Trees were down on Route 1397 and at Crafts Fork off of Hwy 30.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindForaker-A tree was blown down.
May 2011HailForaker-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Magoffin 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
Craft Fork (historical)1.0 miles13
Crafts Fork1.0 miles13
Fritz3.0 miles13
Seitz3.0 miles13
Hendricks3.5 miles14
Puncheon (historical)3.8 miles13
Right Middle Fork (historical)4.3 miles13
Carver4.8 miles14

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 ForakerAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q5467178The 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 508021. 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.