Cuyama, California
24 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1902 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Cuyama census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93254. The Survey maps it on the Cuyama quadrangle. 37 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,293 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1902 to 1981The same ground, surveyed 79 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 figuresCuyama fell from 57 to 37 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 | 57 | |
| 2020 | 37 | -20 (-35%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 24 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.
- 1902 USGS Santa Ynez quadrangle1:125000
- 1905 USGS Santa Ynez quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1942 USGS East of Cuyama Ranch quadrangle1:24000
- 1944 USGS East of Cuyama Ranch quadrangle1:31680
- 1949 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1964 USGS Cuyama quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1964 USGS Salisbury Canyon quadrangle1:62500
- 1966 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
- 1975 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1977 USGS Cuyama quadrangle1:24000
- 1981 USGS Cuyama quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
11 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Cuyama between 1993 and 2020, burning about 16,601 acres in total. None 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/undetermined | 6 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 6 August 1993 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Central California District | GREAT |
| 8 July 1994 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Central California District | COX |
| 3 July 1996 | Debris and open burning | 1,590 acres | Central California District | CUYAMA |
| 29 July 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Santa Barbara County Fire Department | not named |
| 18 July 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Central California District | UNNAMED FIRE 0110 |
| 30 June 1993 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Central California District | CHIPAS |
| 29 June 1993 | Equipment and vehicle use | 15 acres | Los Padres National Forest | HENDELES |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
4 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cuyama in 4 storm reports between 1999 and 2016: 2 hail, 1 wildfire, 1 flash flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2016 | Flash Flood | Cuyama | - | California Highway Patrol reported flash flooding and mud and debris flows around the intersection of Highway2 33 and 166. Several vehicles were trapped in mud. |
| May 2006 | Hail | Cuyama | - | A trained weather spotter reported nickel-size hail in the community of Cuyama. |
| May 2006 | Hail | Cuyama | - | A trained spotter in Cuyama reported nickel-size hail from a severe thunderstorm. |
| July 1999 | Wildfire | Cuyama | - | A wildfire burnt 14,537 acres in the Los Padres National Forest in Santa Barbara County. The fire was ignited by sparks from a bulldozer. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Cuyama | 3.8 miles | 24 | |
| Ventucopa | 10.5 miles | 28 | |
| Junction Camp | 23.9 miles | 29 | |
| Cachuma Village | 31.3 miles | 29 | |
| Los Olivos | 32.3 miles | 26 | |
| Santa Ynez | 33.1 miles | 26 | |
| Ballard | 33.5 miles | 26 | |
| Mission Canyon | 33.8 miles | 21 |
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 Cuyama | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3458868 | 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 241184. 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.












