BlockBefore

Powell, Wyoming

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1980. It stands in the Powell census division. It lies in ZIP code area 82435. The Survey maps it on the Elk Basin SE quadrangle. 6,419 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,393 feet above sea level.

Powell within Park County

On record in Powell

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 2 records

Population over time

2 figures

Powell grew from 6,314 to 6,419 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
20106,314
20206,419+105 (+2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 7 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

56 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 56 fires within 5 miles of Powell between 2002 and 2020, burning about 71 acres in total. 1 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
Debris and open burning38
Recreation and ceremony9
Equipment and vehicle use3
Fireworks2
Natural1
Smoking1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
2 September 2017Debris and open burning1.0 acresPark County158
12 September 2018Debris and open burning2.0 acresPark County177
8 August 2002Natural1.0 acresWyoming State Forestrynot named
3 August 2017Debris and open burning1.0 acresPark County142
27 August 2017Smoking1.0 acresPark County154
22 August 2017Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresPark County152
17 August 2002Recreation and ceremony2.0 acresWyoming State Forestrynot named
11 August 2018Debris and open burning2.0 acresPark County160

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Park County

Storms near this place

11 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Powell in 11 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 5 hail, 2 flash flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 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
June 2000HailPowell$500,000no account filed
August 2009Thunderstorm WindPowell$6,000An automated weather station on the far west side of Powell recorded a peak thunderstorm wind gust of 58.3 mph at 1708MST. The wind dropped a tree on North Douglas Street in Powell and stopped traffic for 30 minutes. Seven other toppled trees in an older section of town blocked streets for approximately three hours until city crews could clear the debris using chainsaws.
June 2022HailPowell-In Park County, a trained spotter reported nickel-sized hail with a thunderstorm near Powell, WY.
July 2019Flash FloodPowell-Nearly an inch of rain and a large amount of large hail fell in only 20 minutes around Powell, Wyoming. The result were numerous areas that were flooded, including streets, businesses and homes. The main damage was from water in basements and flooded roads.
April 2012Thunderstorm WindPowell-A thunderstorm rolled across the northern Big Horn Basin and produced a severe wind gust at an automated station in Powell.
June 2005Tornado (F0)Powell-This tornado formed 5 miles east/southeast of Powell and tracked eastward for 3.5 miles before exiting Park County about 8.5 miles east/southeast of Powell. This tornado continued in Big Horn County for another half mile, before dissipating at 1231 MST. This tornado formed over open country without damage, therefore it was rated as F0.
July 2025HailPowell-no account filed
June 2005HailPowell-no account filed
June 2001Heavy RainPowell-no account filed
August 1998HailPowell-no account filed
June 1998Flash FloodPowell-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Park 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
Willwood4.0 miles7
Garland5.4 miles7
Ralston6.3 miles7
Kamms Corner9.5 miles7
Vocation11.7 miles7
Elk Basin17.3 miles7
Badger Basin20.5 miles11
Lone Tree Crossing21.3 miles7

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 PowellAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1029174The 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 1609143. 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.