El Nido, California
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1918 and the latest in 1983. It stands in the Merced census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95317. It stands on Old Chowchilla Creek. The Survey maps it on the El Nido quadrangle. 331 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 141 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1918 to 1983The same ground, surveyed 65 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 figuresEl Nido grew from 330 to 331 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 | 330 | |
| 2020 | 331 | +1 (+0%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 14 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.
- 1918 USGS Lingard quadrangle1:31680
- 1942 USGS Athlone quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS Lingard quadrangle1:24000
- 1956 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Chowchilla quadrangle1:62500
- 1960 USGS El Nido quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1966 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Merced quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
362 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 362 fires within 5 miles of El Nido between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,191 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 14 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 | 242 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 58 |
| Debris and open burning | 29 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 14 |
| Smoking | 13 |
| Other causes | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 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 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Grasslands Wildlife Management Area | BRASIL |
| 8 September 2004 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Merced-Mariposa Unit | DITCH |
| 7 September 1992 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Merced-Mariposa Unit | GOMES |
| 6 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Merced-Mariposa Unit | SANDY |
| 5 September 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | San Luis National Wildlife Refuge | COBBLESTONE |
| 5 September 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Merced-Mariposa Unit | COOPER |
| 4 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | E WASHINGTON RD EL_NIDO |
| 3 September 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Merced-Mariposa Unit | HWY 152 W/ RD 4 4 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
5 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names El Nido in 5 storm reports between 2006 and 2023: 3 flood, 2 funnel cloud. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2019 | Flood | El Nido | $10,000 | Due to heavy rainfall in the area, the Mariposa Creek Reservoir released 1000 CFS which caused State Route 59 to close between Sandy Mush Road and Mission Ave. as runoff came close to covering the road. This prompted the issuance of an Aerial Flood Advisory for the aforementioned area. The road was opened during the morning of February 14 after levee repairs were made. |
| January 2023 | Flood | El Nido | - | California Highway Patrol reported roadway flooding along W. Sandy Mush Rd. near S. Gurr Rd. |
| January 2023 | Flood | El Nido | - | California Highway Patrol reported roadway flooding along Sandy Mush Rd. near Gurr Rd. |
| November 2019 | Funnel Cloud | El Nido | - | Video posted on twitter showed a funnel cloud over El Nido. |
| January 2006 | Funnel Cloud | El Nido | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Rita Park | 8.1 miles | 18 | |
| Athlone | 8.7 miles | 16 | |
| Lingard | 8.8 miles | 14 | |
| La Branza (historical) | 9.6 miles | 16 | |
| Dos Palos Y | 9.6 miles | 17 | |
| Plainsburg | 11.2 miles | 16 | |
| Merced | 11.5 miles | 16 | |
| Kadota | 11.8 miles | 16 |
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 El Nido | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3478167 | 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 233836. 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.









