Rockcastle, Kentucky

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1980. It stands in the Cerulean census division. It lies in ZIP code area 42211. It lies near Goose Hollow. The Survey maps it on the Lamasco quadrangle. It stands 394 feet above sea level.

Rockcastle within Trigg County

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 8 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.

1953 USGS Lamasco quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1956 USGS Nashville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1959 USGS Nashville quadrangle1:250000
1967 USGS Lamasco quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1980 USGS Hopkinsville quadrangle1:100000

Fires near this place

13 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Rockcastle between 1998 and 2020, burning about 33 acres in total. None 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
Arson/incendiarism	3
Debris and open burning	3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3
Recreation and ceremony	2
Smoking	1
Equipment and vehicle use	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
9 September 2004	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3.0 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
14 September 1998	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
1 September 2007	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area	REAL MCCOY
20 May 2020	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area	SILO
16 April 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area	WOODSON
12 April 2018	Debris and open burning	12 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	HOWARD ROAD
7 March 2010	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
24 March 2004	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.5 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Trigg County

Storms near this place

27 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rockcastle in 27 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 11 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 4 flood, 2 heavy rain. 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
December 2018	Tornado (EF1)	Rockcastle	$55,000	A brief EF-1 tornado touched down just offshore in Lake Barkley near Blue Water Estates. The tornado tracked eastward through part of the subdivision, damaging at least six homes. The damage was minor, consisting mostly of loss of shingles and vinyl siding. There were some broken windows and screens blown in. Three garage doors were blown inward, and one garage lost shingles. A couple of dozen trees were snapped or uprooted. There were two separate eyewitness reports of a tornado. Peak winds were estimated near 90 mph.
February 2017	Hail	Rockcastle	$40,000	Quarter to golf-ball size hail accompanied a tornadic supercell west and northwest of Cadiz in the Lake Barkley area. Golf-ball size hail was reported and photographed near Lake Barkley off of Highway 274, close to the location of a weak tornado. The hailstorm was associated with a storm that acquired supercell characteristics for an hour or so. The storm moved southeast across the Cadiz area.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockcastle	$35,000	Trees were down across northern parts of the county, especially in the Rockcastle area. Trees and power lines were down across the city of Cadiz. A trained spotter estimated winds gusted to 60 mph between Cadiz and Rockcastle.
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockcastle	$35,000	A wind gust to 70 mph was measured on the Trigg/Christian County line along Highway 272. Numerous tree limbs and power lines were blown down countywide, along with an occasional tree. One road was blocked by a downed tree. A few other roads were partially blocked. In Cadiz, most of the damage occurred on the south side of town in the form of downed trees and limbs.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockcastle	$30,000	Trees were blown down on power lines, knocking out power to an estimated 100 homes.
June 2019	Tornado (EF1)	Rockcastle	$25,000	The tornado continued into Trigg County from Lyon County. Although the Trigg County portion of the track was only about one-half mile, it tracked southeast across Hematite Lake. This is a popular nature-viewing area in the Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area. The entire track was through heavily wooded areas. Hundreds of trees, some very large, were snapped or uprooted. Peak winds were estimated near 100 mph.
May 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockcastle	$20,000	Approximately 10 trees were uprooted near the Trigg/Lyon County line. A home on High Point Dr had trees go into the roof and side of the building. This damage occurred from a supercell storm which had produced a tornado to the west-northwest on KY-274.
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockcastle	$20,000	Trees were down around Trigg County. In Cadiz, a power line and tree limbs were down.
May 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockcastle	$20,000	no account filed
February 2019	Flood	Rockcastle	$10,000	The level of Kentucky Lake was raised to 367 feet, about 8 feet above the normal summer pool stage. Low-lying parks, campgrounds, and marina parking lots near the lake were flooded. Some lake access roads were underwater. The lake level was still several feet below the record set during the spring of 2011 flood.
March 2018	Flood	Rockcastle	$10,000	Flooding along the lakeshore of Lake Barkley inundated boat ramps, parking lots, and a few access roads. Some campsites were flooded at private campgrounds. The lake level rose to nearly 365 feet due to restricted water releases at Barkley Dam. The water was held back to mitigate flooding on the Ohio River. The Lake Barkley winter pool stage is 355 feet, and the normal summer pool stage is 359 feet.
June 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockcastle	$10,000	Trees were blown down.
May 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockcastle	$4,000	Large trees were blown down.
October 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockcastle	$3,000	A few trees were blown down.
January 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockcastle	$3,000	Trees and power lines were down in the north and west parts of Trigg County.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Rockcastle	$2,000	The northern edge of a thunderstorm downed a tree onto a road in northern Trigg County.
March 2019	Flood	Rockcastle	-	The level of Lake Barkley was raised to 367 feet, about 8 feet above the normal summer pool stage. Low-lying parks, campgrounds, and marina parking lots near the lake were flooded. Some lake access roads were underwater.
August 2015	Heavy Rain	Rockcastle	-	A trained spotter reported 3.5 inches of rain over a three and one-half hour period.
December 2013	Flash Flood	Rockcastle	-	Several roads were closed in the county. A couple of streets were flooded in Cadiz.
June 2013	Heavy Rain	Rockcastle	-	A total of 3.70 inches of rainfall was measured in 5 hours at Rockcastle. Water was over various highways, including U.S. 68 between the 11 and 12 mile markers. This is near the entrance to Lake Barkley State Park.
May 2010	Flood	Rockcastle	-	About a dozen roads across the county were reported to be affected by high water. Road closures included small parts of Kentucky Highways 126, 124, 1253, 1585, and 1507. Flooded creeks and streams were responsible for some of the flooding.
April 2006	Hail	Rockcastle	-	Nickel size hail fell four miles north of Cadiz. Quarter size hail fell in Rockcastle.
April 2006	Hail	Rockcastle	-	There were numerous reports of quarter size hail from Rockcastle east through Cadiz. Several miles west of Cadiz, hail was up to the size of golf balls.
April 2012	Hail	Rockcastle	-	no account filed
May 2000	Hail	Rockcastle	-	no account filed
February 1996	Hail	Rockcastle	-	no account filed
June 1995	Hail	Rockcastle	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Trigg 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Blue Water Estates	0.7 miles	8
Rockcastle Shores	1.2 miles	8
Trigg Furnace	2.8 miles	8
Shawnee Hills	4.2 miles	7
Ferguson Spring	4.3 miles	13
Blue Spring Estates	4.6 miles	7
Blue Spring	5.6 miles	7
Cedar Point	5.6 miles	7

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 Rockcastle	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q17492498	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 508957. 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.