Bowles, California
20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1925 and the latest in 1982. It stands in the Fowler census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93725. The Survey maps it on the Caruthers quadrangle. 158 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 279 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1925 to 1982The same ground, surveyed 57 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Population over time
2 figuresBowles fell from 166 to 158 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 | 166 | |
| 2020 | 158 | -8 (-5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 20 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.
- 1925 USGS Caruthers quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
- 1946 USGS Caruthers quadrangle1:24000
- 1947 USGS Caruthers quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1948 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1963 USGS Caruthers quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1963 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:62500
- 1966 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
572 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 572 fires within 5 miles of Bowles between 1992 and 2020, burning about 3,399 acres in total. None started naturally. 37 were 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 | 328 |
| Debris and open burning | 101 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 72 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 37 |
| Smoking | 14 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 13 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2018 | Smoking | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | ADAMS |
| 9 September 2016 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | 41 |
| 9 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Fresno-Kings Unit | AMERICAN |
| 8 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Fresno-Kings Unit | N ARMSTRONG AVE FOWLER |
| 8 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4.5 acres | Fresno-Kings Unit | S ELM AVE CARUTHERS |
| 7 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fresno-Kings Unit | S ELM AVE EASTON |
| 7 September 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | Fresno-Kings Unit | PEACH |
| 7 September 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7.0 acres | Fresno-Kings Unit | FKU-10981 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
2 since 2023Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bowles in 2 storm reports in 2023: 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bowles | $10,000 | California Highway Patrol reported a downed tree crashed into a house on S. Orange Ave. north of E. Dinuba Ave. |
| March 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bowles | $3,000 | California Highway Patrol reported a power pole and power lines downed on S. Chestnut Ave. at E. Dinuba Ave. |
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 Bowles | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2145934 | 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 1655840. 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.












