Sonora, Kentucky
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1935 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Sonora census division. It lies in ZIP code area 42776. The Survey maps it on the Sonora quadrangle. 565 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 725 feet above sea level.
On record in Sonora
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 4 records
- John D. Bland Houselisted 1988
- Bland-Overall Houselisted 1988
- Josiah Phillips Houselisted 1988
- John Raine Houselisted 1988
Population over time
3 figuresSonora grew from 350 to 565 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 | 350 | |
| 2010 | 513 | +163 (+47%) |
| 2020 | 565 | +52 (+10%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 14 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.
- 1935 USGS Elizabethtown quadrangle1:48000
- 1938 USGS Elizabethtown quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1949 USGS Elizabethtown quadrangle1:62500
- 1949 USGS Sonora quadrangle1:24000
- 1957 USGS Winchester quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Winchester quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Sonora quadrangle1:24000
- 1967 USGS Sonora quadrangle1:24000
- 1981 USGS Elizabethtown quadrangle1:100000
- 1992 USGS Sonora quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
16 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 16 fires within 5 miles of Sonora between 1999 and 2018, burning about 390 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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 | 5 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 3 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2010 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | WONDERLAND RD. |
| 6 September 2010 | Smoking | 3.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | HWY 84 |
| 26 September 1999 | Smoking | 6.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 25 September 2008 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 25 September 2008 | Debris and open burning | 9.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 22 September 2010 | Smoking | 7.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | AMISH ROAD |
| 17 September 2008 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 15 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 30 April 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 20 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | UPTON |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Sonora: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upton Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
17 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sonora in 17 storm reports between 2001 and 2021: 10 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail, 1 flash 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sonora | $75,000 | Amateur radio operators reported power lines and structural damage in the area. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sonora | $75,000 | A barn was destroyed. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sonora | - | Power lines were down in Upton. |
| December 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sonora | - | Local law enforcement officials reported trees down across Hardin County as a result of severe thunderstorm winds. |
| March 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sonora | - | The public reported that a tree fell on a house at 138 North Maple Street. |
| May 2009 | Flash Flood | Sonora | - | Water was covering Dixie Highway between Upton and Sonora. |
| October 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sonora | - | A NWS Storm Survey team investigated damage in Hardin and Larue Counties in central Kentucky near Upton. The area of damage was located approximately 0.8 miles north of Upton and continued eastward for a third of a mile across U.S. Highway 31W just inside the Larue County line. The damage encompassed an area about 1500 yards wide.||Several hardwood and cedar trees and 12 power poles were knocked over in a west-to-east direction. A tobacco barn was destroyed near the county line along with two other farm barns. Two cows inside one of the barns were killed and one of the barns partially landed on a house. A 4500 pound tractor was also moved 12 feet from west to east. |
| January 2006 | Hail | Sonora | - | Hail reported at Upton. |
| July 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sonora | - | Power lines were downed. |
| March 2006 | Hail | Sonora | - | no account filed |
| January 2006 | Hail | Sonora | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Sonora | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sonora | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Sonora | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sonora | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sonora | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Sonora | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nolin | 2.6 miles | 14 | |
| Upton | 4.1 miles | 12 | |
| Glendale Junction | 4.9 miles | 15 | |
| Glendale | 5.4 miles | 14 | |
| Flint Hill | 5.5 miles | 12 | |
| Melrose | 5.8 miles | 12 | |
| Seven Corners | 6.0 miles | 12 | |
| Harcourt | 6.7 miles | 18 |
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 Sonora | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2031746 | 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 503878. 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.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
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.









