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West Liberty, Kentucky

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1982. It stands in the West Liberty census division. It lies in ZIP code area 41472. It stands on Long Branch. The Survey maps it on the West Liberty quadrangle. 3,215 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 817 feet above sea level.

Research this city

West Liberty within Morgan County

On record in West Liberty

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 3 records

Population over time

2 figures

West Liberty fell from 3,435 to 3,215 between 2010 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.

YearPeople Change
20103,435
20203,215-220 (-6%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 14 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

82 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 82 fires within 5 miles of West Liberty between 1997 and 2020, burning about 836 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined28
Debris and open burning26
Arson/incendiarism23
Recreation and ceremony5

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
30 September 2001Debris and open burning4.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
22 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
19 September 2008Debris and open burning30 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
15 August 2007Debris and open burning3.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
5 May 2001Debris and open burning10 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
22 May 2007Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
16 May 2000Arson/incendiarism5.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
8 April 2002Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Morgan County

Storms near this place

60 of 75 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names West Liberty in 75 storm reports between 1996 and 2022: 52 thunderstorm wind, 13 hail, 6 flash flood, 3 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2008Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$25,000Numerous trees were blown down from West Liberty to Ezel.
June 2012Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$10,000Trees were blown down in and around town.
May 2008Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$10,000Several trees and large limbs were blown down.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$8,000A roof was blown off a house in West Liberty.
July 2012Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$5,000Several trees were blown down along Liberty Rd in West Liberty near the Davis Lane intersection. Some structural damage to a trailer also occurred just west of the Morgan county hospital.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$5,000Trees were blown down along Cow Branch Rd off Hwy 172 and also on Hwy 772 at mile marker 6.
February 2008Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$5,000Trees were blown onto and blocking roads near West Liberty.
January 2008Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$5,000Trees were blown down onto Highways 2499, 172, and 460 by wind gusts estimated at 61 mph.
June 1998Flash FloodWest Liberty$5,000Numerous roads covered with water in town and surrounding areas. Some homes with water damage.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$3,000The Morgan County emergency management reported that strong thunderstorm wind gusts had knocked down multiple trees in the trailer park just off of KY-7, and that at least one tree had fallen onto a mobile home.
January 2006Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$3,000ATV trailer blown into another parked vehicle in parking lot.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$3,000Tree limb blown onto car caused damage to the car.
August 1997Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$3,000Winds in West Liberty were estimated at 60 mph. Just outside of town trees and power lines were downed.
March 1997Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$3,000no account filed
May 2002Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$2,000Strong winds downed several trees.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$1,500Several tree limbs 2 to 3 inches in diameter were blown down by thunderstorm wind gusts on Dye Lane and Wells Hill Lane in West Liberty.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$1,000A 48 mph thunderstorm wind gust was measured by the Mesonet unit.
July 2015Flash FloodWest Liberty$1,000Water surrounded a house and was up to the top of the steps at the front door.
July 2015Flash FloodWest Liberty$1,000At least a foot of water was observed flowing over a roadway in downtown West Liberty. A park was also flooded.
July 2015FloodWest Liberty$1,000U.S. Hwy 460 was closed at mile marker 17.5 due to flooding.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$1,000A tree was blown down.
February 2009Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$1,000A tree was blown down in West Liberty.
April 2009Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$1,000A couple of large limbs were blown down.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$1,000A tree was blown down by thunderstorm wind gusts on McClain Way.
February 2008Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$1,000A tree was blown across Liberty Road.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$400Dispatch reported a tree blown down near the intersection of U.S. Highway 460 and Liberty Road in West Liberty. This resulted in power being knocked out to West Liberty ARH Hospital.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$200Dispatch received a call that trees had been blown down just north of West Liberty. These trees also took down some power lines with them.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-A tree was reported down on Davis Lane in West Liberty.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Trees were blown down in and around West Liberty and elsewhere throughout the county.
April 2020Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Dispatch relayed a report of trees downed just northeast of West Liberty.
June 2019Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Dispatch reported numerous trees down in West Liberty. This includes along Main Street, Kentucky Highway 519, and Kentucky Highway 191.
March 2017Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Trees were blown down.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-A tree was blown down on Branch Street in West Liberty.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Tree and debris were blown down on Alec Spencer Drive in West Liberty.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Large tree limbs and small pieces of debris were blown down.
July 2015Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Shingle damage occurred and large limbs were down due to thunderstorm wind gusts.
October 2014Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-A roof was blown off a garage. A chimney was knocked off of a house. Several trees were snapped off. The damage occurred in West Liberty on Hwy 460 West.
August 2013Heavy RainWest Liberty-The twenty four hour rainfall total near West Liberty was 2.03 inches.
March 2012HailWest Liberty-Tennis ball size hail left indentation in the ground 3 miles west of West Liberty.
July 2011Heavy RainWest Liberty-A weather service employee measured 2.63 inches of rain at his home near West Liberty. The rain fell between 310pm and 440pm.
March 2011HailWest Liberty-The hail was the size of a quarter.
March 2011HailWest Liberty-The hail was the size of a quarter.
May 2010Flash FloodWest Liberty-Two county roads near West Liberty were flooded and closed due to high water from flash flooding.
June 2009Heavy RainWest Liberty-A coop observer measured a 24 hour rainfall total of 3 inches 11 miles northwest of West Liberty.
April 2009HailWest Liberty-A coop observer reported one inch diameter hail at New Cummer.
April 2006Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Several large tree limbs down in roads countywide.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Large tree down across Highway 1950 near Menifee county line.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Several large limbs down.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Widespread tree damage across county.
May 2005Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-One tree and large limbs two to four inches in diamter blown down.
May 2004Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Trees were down along Highway 203.
May 2003Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Large tree limbs were down.
July 2003Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Large limbs were blown down.
April 2002Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-One inch diameter hail was reported along with large tree limbs blown down.
April 2001HailWest Liberty-1 inch diameter hail accumulated to two inches on the ground in downtown West Liberty.
July 2001Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Trees were blown down.
October 2001Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Trees were blown down.
October 2001Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Trees were blown down.
February 2000Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Strong winds brought several large trees down in the city of West Liberty.
April 2000Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Trees down.

Every storm recorded in Morgan County

Newspapers printed here

1,403 digitised pages

1 paper published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 346 issues, 1,403 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.

NewspaperPublished
Licking Valley Courier19?? to Current

What the paper printed

4,021 words

Front pages of the local paper, read from the Library of Congress scans: 2 issues all from 1911, 4,021 words in total. Each is reproduced on its own page, exactly as the recogniser returned it.

These pages read less well than anything else here, and the number is worth stating: about three words in four come through cleanly, against nine in ten for the building records. An 1896 broadsheet sets eight-point type in seven columns on microfilm, which is the hardest thing in this archive to read by machine. We tested our own recognisers against the Library's and they were not better, so the Library's text is what appears, with the wholly unreadable columns removed. Read it as a guide to what the paper covered, and follow the link to the scan before quoting anything.

IssuePaper Length
1911-08-31Licking Valley Courier3,203 words
1911-11-23Licking Valley Courier818 words

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
Neal Valley (historical)1.3 miles14
Liberty Road2.1 miles14
Index2.1 miles14
Licking River2.7 miles14
Pomp2.9 miles14
Gordon Ford2.9 miles14
Straight Creek (historical)3.2 miles14
Bear Wallow (historical)3.2 miles14

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 West LibertyAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2485102The 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 516279. 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.