Dos Palos, California
20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1913 and the latest in 1982. It stands in the Dos Palos census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93620. The Survey maps it on the Dos Palos quadrangle. 5,798 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,188 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1913 to 1982The same ground, surveyed 69 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 figuresDos Palos grew from 4,950 to 5,798 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 | 4,950 | |
| 2020 | 5,798 | +848 (+17%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 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.
- 1913 USGS Panoche quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1922 USGS Dos Palos quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
- 1948 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Dos Palos quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:250000
- 1974 USGS Monterey quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Mendota quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
569 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 569 fires within 5 miles of Dos Palos between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,292 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 59 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 | 327 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 80 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 59 |
| Debris and open burning | 54 |
| Smoking | 24 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 20 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Natural | 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 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Grasslands Wildlife Management Area | O STREET |
| 9 September 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Grasslands Wildlife Management Area | ROADSIDE |
| 9 September 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Merced-Mariposa Unit | GEORGE |
| 8 September 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Grasslands Wildlife Management Area | WOOTEN FIRE |
| 8 September 2004 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5.0 acres | San Luis National Wildlife Refuge | SANTA FE |
| 6 September 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | REYNOLDS AV DOS_PALOS |
| 6 September 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Merced-Mariposa Unit | DENTON |
| 5 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Merced-Mariposa Unit | HWY 33 S DOS_PALOS_CITY |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
9 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Dos Palos in 9 storm reports between 1998 and 2023: 4 funnel cloud, 3 flood, 1 lightning, 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 2023 | Flood | Dos Palos | - | California Highway Patrol reported reported roadway flooding on Turner Island Rd. at Henry Miller Ave. |
| March 2023 | Funnel Cloud | South Dos Palos | - | An image of a funnel cloud over Dos Palos was posted on Facebook. |
| May 2023 | Funnel Cloud | South Dos Palos | - | A cooperative observer observed a funnel cloud over Dos Palos. |
| December 2018 | Flood | Dos Palos | - | California Highway Patrol reported flooding at the intersection of Indiana Rd. and Santa Rita Grade near Dos Palos. |
| March 2014 | Funnel Cloud | Dos Palos | - | A trained spotter and several public reports of funnel clouds in the Dos Palos area during the period. |
| April 1998 | Funnel Cloud | Dos Palos | - | Reports by Merced County Sheriff indicated perhaps two different funnels between 1730 and 1748 PST at Dos Palos on the Merced/Fresno County Line. |
| September 2005 | Lightning | Dos Palos | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Heavy Rain | Dos Palos | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Flood | Dos Palos | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Dos Palos | 2.1 miles | 20 | |
| Dos Palos Y | 4.4 miles | 17 | |
| Brito | 4.4 miles | 20 | |
| Santa Rita Park | 4.6 miles | 18 | |
| Gadwall (historical) | 7.7 miles | 15 | |
| Hamburg Farms | 10.3 miles | 25 | |
| Abbato (historical) | 11.6 miles | 15 | |
| El Nido | 12.5 miles | 14 |
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 Dos Palos | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q986878 | 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 277604. 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.









