BlockBefore

Alaska, Michigan

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1918 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Caledonia Township. It lies in ZIP code area 49302. The Survey maps it on the Alto quadrangle.

Alaska within Kent County

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 12 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

46 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 46 fires within 5 miles of Alaska between 2018 and 2020, burning about 49 acres in total. 3 started naturally. None was 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
Equipment and vehicle use20
Missing data/not specified/undetermined16
Recreation and ceremony3
Natural3
Debris and open burning2
Smoking2

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
20 July 2018Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesCASCADE CHARTER TOWNSHIP FD 1208 - 2018
2 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesCALEDONIA TOWNSHIP FIRE/RESCUE 517 - 2020
12 July 2019Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesCALEDONIA TOWNSHIP FIRE/RESCUE 648 - 2019
1 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesCALEDONIA TOWNSHIP FIRE/RESCUE 512 - 2020
1 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesGAINES TOWNSHIP/DUTTON FD 300 - 2020
9 June 2020Smoking1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesCALEDONIA TOWNSHIP FIRE/RESCUE 452 - 2020
22 June 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesCALEDONIA TOWNSHIP FIRE/RESCUE 581 - 2019
17 June 2020Natural1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesCASCADE CHARTER TOWNSHIP FD 893 - 2020

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Kent County

Storms near this place

4 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alaska in 4 storm reports between 1993 and 2014: 4 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 1999Thunderstorm WindAlaska$30,000Trees were downed in Alaska, just northeat of Grand Rapids, and also in Rockford. Several trees and power lines were also downed in the vicinity of Lowell, just east of Cannonsburg, and just northwest of Byron Center (all in Kent County).
September 2014Thunderstorm WindAlaska$25,000There were reports of at least 8 trees that were blown down and blocked area roads in far southeastern Kent county, including in the town of Alaska.
April 2001Thunderstorm WindAlaska$10,000no account filed
August 1993Thunderstorm WindAlaska$5,000Two-foot-diameter trees, many power lines, and large limbs were blown down. The living room of a house was torn apart.

Every storm recorded in Kent 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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Labarge2.0 miles12
Whitneyville2.4 miles12
McCords2.6 miles12
Holy Corners3.2 miles15
Caledonia4.1 miles15
Cascade5.1 miles13
Alto5.3 miles12
Dutton5.7 miles15

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 619892. 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.