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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.

Central within Graham County

Population over time

2 figures

Central 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.

YearPeople Change
2010645
2020758+113 (+18%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 13 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

14 since 1994

Regional 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/undetermined10
Debris and open burning3
Fireworks1

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
8 September 1998Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreGila District OfficeR/M
6 July 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined7.0 acresGila District OfficeRIVER
2 July 1994Fireworks5.0 acresGila District OfficeBONITA II
5 June 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined7.0 acresArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State OfficeSATURE
23 June 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined9.0 acresGila District OfficeFARM ROAD
23 June 1998Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreGila District OfficeWATSON
15 June 1995Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.5 acresArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Officenot named
28 May 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined87 acresGila District OfficeGILA

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Graham County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Mt Graham WellGeothermalUnknown
Rhoades-MathewsBentoniteProspect
Rhodes-MathewsBentoniteOccurrence
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Pit No. 1 MorrisSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Bold ClaimsCopperProspect
Cobre ClaimsCopperProspect
Dixie ClaimsCopperProspect
Norman PropertyCopperProspect

Every working recorded in Graham County

Storms near this place

5 since 2007

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2021LightningCentral$100,000Lightning struck a partially constructed home, causing it to burn to the ground.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindCentral$20,000Thunderstorm 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 2016HailCentral$20,000Large hail damaged several cars and residences in the community of Pima.
November 2016Thunderstorm WindCentral$15,000Thunderstorm winds damaged large tree limbs and a number of roofs in the community of Pima.
May 2007Thunderstorm WindCentral$9,000A 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.

Every storm recorded in Graham 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
Kimball2.2 miles11
Thatcher2.2 miles13
Pima2.7 miles11
Graham2.8 miles12
Dublin3.0 miles11
Bryce4.6 miles11
Glenbar4.8 miles11
Safford5.1 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 CentralAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q5060193The 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.