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Vaya Chin, Arizona

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1996. It stands in the Tohono O'odham Nation census division. It lies in ZIP code area 85321. The Survey maps it on the Vaya Chin quadrangle. It stands 2,133 feet above sea level.

Vaya Chin within Pima County

Topographic sheets covering this place

11 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

10 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 10 fires within 5 miles of Vaya Chin between 1993 and 2020, burning about 31 acres in total. 2 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/undetermined5
Natural2
Debris and open burning1
Smoking1
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
6 September 2002Naturalunder an acreArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State OfficeCHARCOAL
7 August 2003Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State OfficeGRANDE FIRE
11 July 2020Natural20 acresPapago AgencyCIMMARRON
25 May 2003Debris and open burningunder an acreArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State OfficeMOTORCROSS
25 May 1993Smokingunder an acreArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State Officenot named
17 May 2003Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State OfficeTHORNTON
1 April 2003Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresArizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management - State OfficeOLD MINER FIRE
14 March 2017Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresPapago AgencyROUTE 34

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Pima County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Vaya Chin: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: 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
UnknownGeothermalOccurrence

Every working recorded in Pima County

Storms near this place

4 since 2011

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Vaya Chin in 4 storm reports between 2011 and 2019: 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud. 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
July 2011Thunderstorm WindVaya Chin$75,000Tohono O'odham Nation Emergency Managers reported damaging winds in the Vaya Chin and Hickiwan villages. Several trailers and a home was damaged. One trailer received major structural damage and another trailer was completely destroyed. The homeowners were not home at the time. A vacant trailer was also destroyed. In addition, a traditional style home received significant roof damage and a HUD (Housing and Urban Development) home also received roof damage.
August 2011Thunderstorm WindVaya Chin$25,000Thunderstorm winds caused minor damage to homes and trailers in Vaya Chin. One home's roof was blown off, allowing heavy rainfall to damage the interior of the home.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindVaya Chin$10,000Thunderstorm winds flipped over a trailer home and downed several trees west of Santa Rosa.
July 2019Funnel CloudVaya Chin-A Southwest Airlines pilot reported a funnel cloud in a PIREP in a storm to the south of the flight path over the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Every storm recorded in Pima 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
Oit Ihuk4.8 miles14
Hickiwan8.0 miles13
Komak Wuacho8.5 miles14
Ventana9.3 miles14
Tatai Toak9.6 miles13
Emika10.3 miles13
Noipa Kam10.4 miles14
Wahak Hotrontk11.5 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 Vaya ChinAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q38249316The 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 13199. 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.