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Laura, Kentucky

20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Threeforks census division. It lies in ZIP code area 41250. It stands on Caney Fork. The Survey maps it on the Varney quadrangle.

Laura within Martin County

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 20 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

103 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 103 fires within 5 miles of Laura between 1997 and 2020, burning about 9,485 acres in total. None started naturally. 23 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 burning49
Arson/incendiarism23
Missing data/not specified/undetermined18
Recreation and ceremony11
Equipment and vehicle use2

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
21 September 2008Debris and open burning327 acresKentucky Division of ForestryHWY 1714 CANEY
21 September 2007Debris and open burning3.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
19 September 2007Debris and open burning8.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
18 September 1999Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
2 May 2001Arson/incendiarism10 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
9 April 2007Debris and open burning12 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
9 April 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
9 April 2000Missing data/not specified/undetermined100 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Martin County

Storms near this place

5 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Laura in 5 storm reports between 2002 and 2017: 3 flash flood, 1 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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 2017Flash FloodLaura$500Local officials reported high water flowing over Kentucky Highway 1714 south of Laura.
October 2014Thunderstorm WindLaura-A tree was blown down near the Martin and Pike county line.
July 2002Flash FloodLaura-Water was flowing about 7 to 8 inches deep along Kentucky Highway 1714, which runs along Pigeon Roost Creek.
May 2004Flash FloodLaura-no account filed
June 2002HailLaura-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Martin 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
Threeforks2.6 miles26
Moree3.3 miles16
McClure3.6 miles26
Pilgrim5.2 miles26
West Lovely (historical)6.9 miles26
Lovely7.2 miles26
Beauty7.9 miles26
Warfield8.3 miles26

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 LauraAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q6498552The 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 510119. 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.