Central, Arizona
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the Safford census division. It lies in ZIP code area 85531. It stands on Central Wash. The Survey maps it on the Thatcher quadrangle. 758 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,884 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresCentral grew from 645 to 758 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 | 645 | |
| 2020 | 758 | +113 (+18%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 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 Silver City quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Silver City quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Thatcher quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Silver City quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Thatcher quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1994 USGS Safford quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1997 USGS Thatcher quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
14 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of Central between 1994 and 2020, burning about 416 acres in total. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Gila District Office | R/M |
| 6 July 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7.0 acres | Gila District Office | RIVER |
| 2 July 1994 | Fireworks | 5.0 acres | Gila District Office | BONITA II |
| 5 June 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7.0 acres | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | SATURE |
| 23 June 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9.0 acres | Gila District Office | FARM ROAD |
| 23 June 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Gila District Office | WATSON |
| 15 June 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.5 acres | Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office | not named |
| 28 May 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 87 acres | Gila District Office | GILA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Central: 5 prospects, 2 unknowns, 1 producer, 1 occurrence. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Copper, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Bentonite, Geothermal. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mt Graham Well | Geothermal | Unknown | ||
| Rhoades-Mathews | Bentonite | Prospect | ||
| Rhodes-Mathews | Bentonite | Occurrence | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Pit No. 1 Morris | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Bold Claims | Copper | Prospect | ||
| Cobre Claims | Copper | Prospect | ||
| Dixie Claims | Copper | Prospect | ||
| Norman Property | Copper | Prospect |
Storms near this place
5 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Central in 5 storm reports between 2007 and 2021: 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 lightning. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2021 | Lightning | Central | $100,000 | Lightning struck a partially constructed home, causing it to burn to the ground. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Central | $20,000 | Thunderstorm winds downed two large trees, one power pole, a barn and a few small sheds in Central. One of the downed trees smashed through a brick wall. Another of the trees downed two power lines which trapped two people in separate vehicles. |
| November 2016 | Hail | Central | $20,000 | Large hail damaged several cars and residences in the community of Pima. |
| November 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Central | $15,000 | Thunderstorm winds damaged large tree limbs and a number of roofs in the community of Pima. |
| May 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Central | $9,000 | A telephone pole was knocked down due to outflow winds along Highway 70. Numerous tree limbs were also broken from Thatcher to Safford to San Jose on Highway 70. |
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.
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 Central | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5060193 | 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 2693. 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.






