East Palo Alto, California
51 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the San Mateo census division. It lies in ZIP code area 94303. It stands on San Francisquito Creek. The Survey maps it on the Palo Alto quadrangle. 30,034 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 20 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1897 to 1997The same ground, surveyed 100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1897 against another survey:
Population over time
3 figuresEast Palo Alto grew from 18,727 to 30,034 between 1970 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 18,727 | |
| 2010 | 28,155 | |
| 2020 | 30,034 | +1,879 (+7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
22 surveys from 51 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.
- 1897 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
- 1899 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500, 11 printings
- 1902 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:125000, 9 printings
- 1941 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
- 1943 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
- 1948 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1953 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1991 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1997 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
141 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 141 fires within 5 miles of East Palo Alto between 1992 and 2020, burning about 116 acres in total. None started naturally. 13 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 | 89 |
| Smoking | 13 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 13 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 11 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 8 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 5 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | not named |
| 5 September 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Santa Clara Unit | not named |
| 5 September 2009 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 19 September 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 18 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | not named |
| 15 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 13 September 1997 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | BECKER |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 14 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of East Palo Alto: 5 producers, 5 past producers, 3 unknowns, 1 occurrence. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Gypsum-Anhydrite, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Salt. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palo Alto Sewage Sludge | Gold, Silver, Phosphorus-Phosphates, Copper, Tin, Palladium | Occurrence | Ash | |
| Redwood City Operation | Halite | Producer | ||
| Granite Rock | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Granite Rock | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Kaiser Gypsum | Gypsum-Anhydrite | Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Kaiser Gypsum | Gypsum-Anhydrite | Past Producer | ||
| Redwood City Operation | Salt | Past Producer | ||
| Redwood City Plant | Salt | Producer | ||
| Page Mill Quarry | Stone | Producer | ||
| Quarry | Stone | Producer |
Storms near this place
7 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names East Palo Alto in 7 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 3 flash flood, 3 flood, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | East Palo Alto | $50,000 | no account filed |
| December 2024 | Flood | East Palo Alto | - | Northbound US Highway 101 was flooded at the Willow Road offramp. |
| December 2016 | Flood | East Palo Alto | - | Roadway flooding reported on SR85N and Moffett Boulevard Offramp. |
| December 2014 | Flood | East Palo Alto | - | US-101 closed in both directions due to flooding in Menlo Park between Willow and Marsh exits. |
| February 1998 | Flash Flood | East Palo Alto | - | San Francisquito Creek |
| February 1998 | Flash Flood | East Palo Alto | - | San Francisquito Creek |
| February 1998 | Flash Flood | East Palo Alto | - | San Francisquito Creek |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runnymeade (historical) | 0.3 miles | 51 | |
| Ravenswood | 0.6 miles | 51 | |
| The Willows | 0.9 miles | 51 | |
| Belle Haven | 1.1 miles | 51 | |
| Cooley Landing | 1.2 miles | 52 | |
| Menlo Oaks | 1.4 miles | 51 | |
| Vintage Oaks | 1.4 miles | 51 | |
| Henderson | 1.5 miles | 51 |
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 East Palo Alto | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q988697 | 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 1658461. 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.





















