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Elfrida, Arizona

19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1916 and the latest in 1996. It stands in the Elfrida census division. It lies in ZIP code area 85610. The Survey maps it on the Elfrida quadrangle. 421 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,150 feet above sea level.

Elfrida within Cochise County

On record in Elfrida

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Elfrida fell from 459 to 421 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
2010459
2020421-38 (-8%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 19 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.

Photographs

2 photographs, 2018

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

An irrigation "crawler" in a cotton field near Elfrida in southeastern Arizona's Cochise County
An irrigation "crawler" in a cotton field near Elfrida in southeastern Arizona's Cochise County
Highsmith, Carol M, 2018. Library of Congress
An irrigation "crawler" in a cotton field near Elfrida in southeastern Arizona's Cochise County
An irrigation "crawler" in a cotton field near Elfrida in southeastern Arizona's Cochise County
Highsmith, Carol M, 2018. Library of Congress

Fires near this place

29 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 29 fires within 5 miles of Elfrida between 1994 and 2020, burning about 143 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined18
Equipment and vehicle use5
Debris and open burning4
Smoking1
Natural1

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
16 August 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreElfrida Fire Districtnot named
22 July 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - Southeast DistrictMCNEAL
12 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - Southeast DistrictELFRIDA
8 June 2013Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Office27TH
30 June 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State OfficeJEFFERSON
29 June 2008Natural3.6 acresArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State OfficeTHOMPSON
22 June 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - Southeast DistrictELFRIDA
18 June 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - Southeast DistrictWAGON WHEEL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Cochise County

Storms near this place

14 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Elfrida in 14 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 6 flash flood, 3 hail, 3 flood, 2 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
August 2022FloodElfrida$1,500,000Rainfall of 2 at the headwaters of Rucker Creek traveled downstream and through and existing breach in a berm combined with rainfall in the immediate area, resulted in an exacerbation of flooding in Elfrida. Flood waters expanded west of Highway 191 and became deeper throughout most of the community. A total of 42 residences sustained at least some flood damage. Eleven sustained major damage and 3 were determined to be a total loss. A couple of businesses also sustained flood damage and floodwaters also affected septic tanks and wells.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindElfrida$100,000Thunderstorm winds downed or snapped multiple power poles in the Elfrida and McNeal areas. One house, one barn and one garage also suffered substantial roof damage.
August 2022Flash FloodElfrida$50,000A breach in the berm along Rucker Creek near Bell and Thompson Roads resulted in flash flooding of roadways near the creek in eastern sections of Elfrida.
August 2021Flash FloodElfrida$15,000Two inches of rain in 1 to 2 hours caused flash flooding in central Cochise County. Highway 191 near Birch Rd was flooded. Gleeson Rd. was washed out near mile post 20 and a swift water rescue occurred at mile post 14.
August 1997FloodElfrida$10,000Thunderstorms dumped 2-3 inches of rain which caused five homes to be flooded. Damage was mainly to carpet and furniture.
July 2025Flash FloodElfrida$500Cochise County Public Health official reported extensive roadway flooding along Courtland Road in Elfrida, AZ.
August 2022FloodElfrida-Rainfall of 1-1.5 in 3 hours caused sheet flooding and mud close portions of Gleason, Frontier and Davis Rds. near Elfrida and McNeal.
August 2022Flash FloodElfrida-Heavy rain of 1.5 in Elfrida and upstream of a breached berm along Rucker Creek caused flash flooding of streets in Elfrida. Yards also became flooded to the bases of houses.
July 2013HailElfrida-Penny size hail was reported in Elfrida.
July 2002Flash FloodElfrida-no account filed
June 1998HailElfrida-no account filed
August 1996Thunderstorm WindElfrida-no account filed
August 1996Flash FloodElfrida-no account filed
August 1996HailElfrida-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Cochise 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
Grizzles Orchard5.8 miles19
McNeal5.9 miles19
Gleeson8.3 miles21
Courtland8.7 miles18
Sunizona13.7 miles19
Double Adobe15.1 miles23
Black Diamond16.0 miles19
Pearce16.7 miles18

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 ElfridaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2841688The 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 4408. 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.