BlockSoft Shell, Kentucky
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Mousie census division. It lies in ZIP code area 41831. It stands on Mine Branch. The Survey maps it on the Handshoe quadrangle. It stands 1,125 feet above sea level.
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 17 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.
- 1890 USGS Whitesburg quadrangle1:125000
- 1892 USGS Whitesburg quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1912 USGS Hindman quadrangle1:48000
- 1915 USGS Hindman quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1954 USGS Handshoe quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Jenkins quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Jenkins quadrangle1:250000
- 1977 USGS Pikeville quadrangle1:100000
- 1992 USGS Handshoe quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
241 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 241 fires within 5 miles of Soft Shell between 1997 and 2020, burning about 15,262 acres in total. None started naturally. 47 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 burning | 105 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 66 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 47 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 16 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 5 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 30 September 2007 | Debris and open burning | 25 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 26 September 1999 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 13 September 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 11 September 1999 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 1 September 2007 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 18 August 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 16 August 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 2.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
3 since 2016Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Soft Shell in 3 storm reports between 2016 and 2022: 3 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Soft Shell | - | A tree was blown down and onto KY Highway 80 near Yellow Mountain. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Soft Shell | - | A tree was down and onto KY 1087 near the communities of Soft Shell and Mousie. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Soft Shell | - | A tree was blown down and onto Sunshine Lane. |
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.
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 Soft Shell | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q7553920 | 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 509089. 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.