Alba, Michigan
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Star Township. It lies in ZIP code area 49611. The Survey maps it on the Alba quadrangle. 287 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,178 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresAlba fell from 295 to 287 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 295 | |
| 2020 | 287 | -8 (-3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 13 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.
- 1954 USGS Traverse City quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS Alba quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Traverse City quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1983 USGS Grayling quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Alba quadrangle1:24000
- 1989 USGS Traverse City quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
38 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 38 fires within 5 miles of Alba between 1992 and 2020, burning about 30 acres in total. 2 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 |
|---|---|
| Equipment and vehicle use | 13 |
| Debris and open burning | 11 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 September 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 17 September 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 August 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | MANCELONA FD 0015601 - 2018 |
| 4 August 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | MANCELONA FD 0015538 - 2018 |
| 4 June 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 4 June 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 13 June 1992 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 May 1992 | Smoking | 5.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
12 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alba in 12 storm reports between 1998 and 2022: 5 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 2 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. 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 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alba | 1 hurt | A female hiker was struck by a falling tree in the Landslide Creek area. Her injuries were not serious. |
| May 2022 | Tornado (EF1) | Alba | $175,000 | The tornado formed 4 miles east of Alba in a location on Olds Rd 0.5 miles east of the Alba Rd intersection. It tracked east northeast for about 1.75 miles before exiting Antrim county 200 yards southeast of the Alba Rd/Old Alba Rd intersection. The tornado continued in Otsego county for almost 16 additional miles before dissipating at 1457 EST. In Antrim county, no injuries or fatalities were reported. Several homes were damaged along with numerous softwood trees snapped at their trunks (DI 28, DOD 4) along Patterson Rd. While the highest rating of EF1 in Antrim county was assigned at this location, the tornado was rated EF3 in Otsego county. The maximum path width in Antrim county was 200 yards. |
| August 2018 | Tornado (EF0) | Alba | $80,000 | A tornado with estimated maximum winds of 80 mph touched down south of Alba, and followed a discontinuous path to the northeast, lifting just before the Otsego County line. A number of hardwood and softwood trees were downed. |
| May 2022 | Hail | Alba | $30,000 | Report of hail smaller than baseballs resulting in roof, siding, and garage door damage to two houses. |
| May 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alba | $4,000 | Six to eight trees downed at the Lakes of the North campground. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alba | $1,500 | A large metal flag pole was toppled. |
| May 2022 | Hail | Alba | - | One inch hail 4 miles west of Alba. |
| May 2022 | Hail | Alba | - | Facebook photo of golf ball sized hail at the intersection of M 32 and US 131. Time estimated by radar. |
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alba | - | A few trees down. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Alba | - | no account filed |
| October 2007 | Hail | Alba | - | no account filed |
| September 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alba | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wetzel | 4.4 miles | 16 | |
| Green River | 4.7 miles | 16 | |
| Mancelona | 7.0 miles | 16 | |
| Antrim | 8.1 miles | 16 | |
| Chestonia | 8.3 miles | 12 | |
| Finkton | 9.7 miles | 12 | |
| Pleasant Valley | 11.7 miles | 12 | |
| Bellaire | 12.9 miles | 15 |
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 Alba | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q4708936 | 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 619894. 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.





