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Cerritos, California

49 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1896 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Downey-Norwalk census division. It lies in ZIP code area 90703. The Survey maps it on the Los Alamitos quadrangle. 49,578 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 46 feet above sea level.

Cerritos within Los Angeles County

Then and now

1896 to 1981

The same ground, surveyed 85 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Cerritos, surveyed 1981
Topographic sheet of Cerritos, surveyed 1896

Compare 1896 against another survey:

Population over time

3 figures

Cerritos grew from 166 to 49,578 between 1880 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
1880166
201049,041
202049,578+537 (+1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

21 surveys from 49 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

334 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 334 fires within 5 miles of Cerritos between 2005 and 2020, burning about 3,628 acres in total. None started naturally. 58 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/undetermined197
Arson/incendiarism58
Smoking35
Equipment and vehicle use19
Misuse of fire by a minor18
Debris and open burning5
Power generation/transmission/distribution2

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 2009Arson/incendiarismunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
6 September 2009Arson/incendiarismunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
6 September 2007Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
5 September 2018Arson/incendiarismunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
5 September 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
5 September 2005Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
30 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
30 September 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Los Angeles County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Cerritos: 1 past producer, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Clay. 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
Santa Fe Springs PlantClayProducer
Torrance Brick Co - Torr Plant No 1ClayPast ProducerSedimentary

Every working recorded in Los Angeles County

Storms near this place

1 since 2023

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cerritos in 1 storm report in 2023: 1 tornado. 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
February 2023Tornado (EF0)Cerritos-Multiple reports of tree damage, associated with a non-supercell tornado, south of East Whitter. The tornado was very small and no injuries were reported.

Every storm recorded in Los Angeles 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
Artesia1.1 miles49
Dolley1.5 miles49
Hawaiian Gardens1.9 miles49
Carmenita2.5 miles48
Norwalk3.2 miles47
Bellflower3.2 miles46
Lakewood3.7 miles46
Rendalia4.3 miles44

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 CerritosAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q575316The 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 241229. 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.