BlockCosta Mesa, California
47 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1896 and the latest in 1983. It stands in the Central Coast census division. It lies in ZIP code area 92627. The Survey maps it on the Newport Beach quadrangle. 111,918 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 98 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1896 to 1983The same ground, surveyed 87 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
Compare 1896 against another survey:
Population over time
2 figuresCosta Mesa grew from 109,960 to 111,918 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 | 109,960 | |
| 2020 | 111,918 | +1,958 (+2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
19 surveys from 47 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.
- 1896 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1901 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:62500, 6 printings
- 1901 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
- 1902 USGS Corona quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
- 1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1932 USGS Newport Beach quadrangle1:31680
- 1935 USGS Newport Beach quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
- 1942 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1947 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1949 USGS Newport Beach quadrangle1:24000
- 1949 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1951 USGS Newport Beach quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS Newport Beach quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1965 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1974 USGS Costa Mesa quadrangle1:24000
- 1983 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
246 since 2005Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 246 fires within 5 miles of Costa Mesa between 2005 and 2020, burning about 106 acres in total. None started naturally. 36 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 | 169 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 36 |
| Smoking | 16 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 9 |
| Debris and open burning | 9 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Orange County Fire Authority | not named |
| 8 September 2009 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 3 September 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Orange County Fire Authority | not named |
| 3 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 28 September 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 24 September 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 23 September 2006 | Smoking | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 2 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Costa Mesa: 4 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Salt, Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Huntington Beach Plant Sully-Miller | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Los Angeles Pressed Brick Co. | Clay | Past Producer | ||
| Newport Bay, Shellmaker, Inc. | Salt | Past Producer | ||
| Salt Ponds | Salt | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
11 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Costa Mesa in 11 storm reports between 1998 and 2020: 3 flood, 2 funnel cloud, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 heavy rain. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Costa Mesa | $350,000 | As a line of thunderstorms moved through Orange County, a peak wind gust of 93 MPH was measured by the weather station at the Newport Beach Pier. Several wind gusts in excess of 70 MPH were also reported. Several boats in the Newport Beach Harbor broke free. In Costa Mesa, just inland from Newport Beach, a building in an industrial park on 17th Ave sustained moderate damage. Approximately two-thirds of the top layer of the roof blew off. Pieces of the roof, some as large as 15 feet long, trees, and other debris littered the parking lot. Across the street at a mobile home park, metal awnings were ripped off by the wind and pieces of wood were seen flying through the air. A few blocks away near the intersection of Harbor Blvd and Victoria Street, the strong winds blew open the door to a business and shattered a window. |
| December 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Costa Mesa | $30,000 | A fence fell onto a carport at an apartment complex causing extensive damage to several parked cars. The damaged was discovered in the morning, but was said to have likely been the result of the winds that occurred during overnight hours. |
| March 2000 | Flood | Costa Mesa | $20,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Heavy Rain | Costa Mesa | $20,000 | no account filed |
| April 2020 | Flood | Costa Mesa | - | Widespread urban flooding reported throughout Costa Mesa with water on roadways and some fast moving shallow water. |
| January 2005 | Funnel Cloud | Costa Mesa | - | no account filed |
| February 2005 | Hail | Costa Mesa | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Wildfire | Costa Mesa | - | no account filed |
| December 1999 | Waterspout | Costa Mesa | - | no account filed |
| January 1999 | Funnel Cloud | Costa Mesa | - | no account filed |
| February 1998 | Flood | Costa Mesa | - | no account filed |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hoosier Trailer Court | 0.3 miles | 47 | |
| Snug Harbor Trailer Park (historical) | 0.5 miles | 47 | |
| El Nido Mobile Home Estates (historical) | 0.5 miles | 47 | |
| Ponderosa Mobile Home Park | 0.6 miles | 47 | |
| Cliff Haven | 0.6 miles | 47 | |
| Tradewinds Trailer Village | 0.9 miles | 47 | |
| Ebbtide Mobile Home Park | 0.9 miles | 47 | |
| Harbor Mobile Home Park | 1.0 miles | 47 |
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 Costa Mesa | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q499196 | 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 1652692. 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.