Nortonville, Kentucky
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1912 and the latest in 1983. It stands in the Nortonville census division. It lies in ZIP code area 42442. It stands on Pleasant Run. The Survey maps it on the Nortonville quadrangle. 977 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 404 feet above sea level.
Population over time
3 figuresNortonville fell from 1,264 to 977 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 | 1,264 | |
| 2010 | 1,204 | -60 (-5%) |
| 2020 | 977 | -227 (-19%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 12 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.
- 1912 USGS Nortonville quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1953 USGS Nortonville quadrangle1:24000
- 1954 USGS Evansville quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Evansville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Evansville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1963 USGS Nortonville quadrangle1:24000
- 1983 USGS Madisonville quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
37 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 37 fires within 5 miles of Nortonville between 1997 and 2020, burning about 1,504 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 4 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/undetermined | 13 |
| Debris and open burning | 9 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 4 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 4 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| 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 2010 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | CAN FIRE |
| 22 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | RED HILL |
| 16 September 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 15 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 10 August 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 10 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 7 April 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 75 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 3 April 1997 | Smoking | 5.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 2 April 2016 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 3.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | HOPKINSVILLE ROAD |
| 10 April 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
17 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Nortonville in 17 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 5 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 funnel cloud, 2 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2007 | Tornado (EF1) | Nortonville | $80,000 | Wooden roofs were removed from two masonry buildings. One tree fell on a house. A gas station canopy was damaged. Power lines were downed due to fallen trees. Tops of trees were torn off, and some trees were uprooted. Peak winds were estimated near 95 mph. |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Nortonville | $50,000 | Several trees and power lines were blown down along U.S. Highway 62 from Nortonville to White Plains. One huge tree landed on a house, and another landed on three or four cars. A large tree landed across U.S. 62, blocking traffic. |
| June 1998 | Hail | Nortonville | $30,000 | Gof ball size hail fell near the Christian County border on U.S. 41. Vehicles were dented. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Nortonville | $5,000 | Large tree limbs were down around the community. |
| February 2025 | Flash Flood | Nortonville | - | Flash flooding closed a portion of U.S. 62 near Nortonville. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Nortonville | - | A social media post showed hail up to golfball size in Nortonville as a storm tracked to the ENE. |
| February 2019 | Flood | Nortonville | - | A few state roads were closed or marked with warning signs due to flooding, including parts of Highways 892, 1221, and 502. |
| February 2019 | Flood | Nortonville | - | Water covered several roads in the White Plains and Nortonville areas. |
| March 2009 | Funnel Cloud | Nortonville | - | A funnel cloud was photographed over Nortonville. |
| December 2007 | Heavy Rain | Nortonville | - | Warning signs were placed at six locations where water was over the roadways. These locations included U.S. Highway 62 at the 16 mile marker, Kentucky 502 at the two and four mile markers, and Kentucky 112 at the 8 mile marker. |
| June 2006 | Hail | Nortonville | - | Quarter size hail occurred at the state police post along the Western Kentucky Parkway at mile marker 40. A few other reports of quarter to half-dollar size hail were received within a couple miles of White Plains during a National Severe Storms Lab (NSSL) experiment. |
| September 2006 | Funnel Cloud | Nortonville | - | A large funnel cloud was reported by emergency management personnel over the parkway. |
| January 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Nortonville | - | Several trees were down about a mile from Nortonville and at White Plains. |
| September 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Nortonville | - | Several large trees were blown down along U.S. Highway 41 from Mortons Gap to the Christian County line. |
| May 2023 | Hail | Nortonville | - | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Funnel Cloud | Nortonville | - | no account filed |
| October 2010 | Hail | Nortonville | - | no account filed |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Little Valley | 0.9 miles | 12 | |
| Oak Hill | 1.4 miles | 12 | |
| Dillingham (historical) | 2.4 miles | 12 | |
| Homestead (historical) | 2.4 miles | 12 | |
| Pleasant Hill (historical) | 2.5 miles | 12 | |
| Daniel Boone | 3.0 miles | 12 | |
| Romney (historical) | 3.2 miles | 12 | |
| McIntosh (historical) | 3.4 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 Nortonville | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2043963 | 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 499617. 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.






