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Laguna Beach, California

44 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1896 and the latest in 1983. It stands in the South Coast census division. It lies in ZIP code area 92651. It lies near Laguna Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Laguna Beach quadrangle. 23,032 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 20 feet above sea level.

Laguna Beach within Orange County

Then and now

1896 to 1983

The 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.

Topographic sheet of Laguna Beach, surveyed 1983
Topographic sheet of Laguna Beach, surveyed 1896

Compare 1896 against another survey:

On record in Laguna Beach

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 5 records

Population over time

4 figures

Laguna Beach grew from 1,981 to 23,032 between 1930 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.

YearPeople Change
19301,981
200023,727
201022,723-1,004 (-4%)
202023,032+309 (+1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

17 surveys from 44 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Fires near this place

50 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 50 fires within 5 miles of Laguna Beach between 1994 and 2020, burning about 185 acres in total. None started naturally. 15 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/undetermined19
Arson/incendiarism15
Equipment and vehicle use7
Smoking4
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
22 September 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreOrange County Fire Authoritynot named
15 September 2018Arson/incendiarismunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
13 September 2005Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
12 September 2007Arson/incendiarismunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
28 August 2012Smokingunder an acreOrange County Fire Authoritynot named
19 August 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
1 August 2011Arson/incendiarismunder an acreOrange County Fire Authoritynot named
1 August 2005Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Orange County

Storms near this place

14 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Laguna Beach in 14 storm reports between 1998 and 2019: 4 waterspout, 3 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 1 hail. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
February 2019Flash FloodLaguna Beach$80,000Storm channels were inundated by flash flooding with up to 2 inches of rain in 3 hours. Streets were closed and homes threatened by waters.
February 2005Flash FloodLaguna Beach$60,000Several vehicles were nearly submerged up to their roofs in flood waters on Laguna Canyon Road.
February 2017Thunderstorm WindLaguna Beach$25,000Roughly 20 trees were downed by convective winds in Laguna Beach. The nearby Laguna Beach mesonet station measured a peak gust of 67 mph at 1737PST.
January 2010Thunderstorm WindLaguna Beach$25,000High winds associated with a line of thunderstorms moved through south Orange County between 1330 and 1400 PST on the 19th. A spotter reported wind damage at his mother's condominium complex in Laguna Niguel, near Oso Parkway and Highway 73. A twelve foot tall tennis court enclosure with 4 inch aluminum posts was bent outwards at a 25 degree angle, two mature trees with a trunk diameter of greater than 12 inches were snapped off just above the ground level, and numerous 4 inch diameter tree branches from a pine tree broke off. The spotter was not at the location at the time, but observed the damage two months after it happened. The mother and another neighbor felt a suction and the windows of their condos shook violently. It is possible that a tornado briefly touched down in the complex, though no other reports of a tornado could be found.
February 2001Thunderstorm WindLaguna Beach$25,000no account filed
February 2005Flash FloodLaguna Beach$20,000Some roads were washed out and others were covered in mud and rushing water after hours of heavy rain.
February 2003FloodLaguna Beach-no account filed
July 2003Rip CurrentLaguna Beach-no account filed
May 2001WaterspoutLaguna Beach-no account filed
August 2001WildfireLaguna Beach-no account filed
June 1999WaterspoutLaguna Beach-no account filed
April 1998WaterspoutLaguna Beach-no account filed
January 1998WaterspoutLaguna Beach-no account filed
April 1998HailLaguna Beach-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Orange County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Canyon Acres0.9 miles44
Emerald Bay1.6 miles44
Top of the World1.6 miles44
Aliso Viejo3.4 miles37
South Laguna3.6 miles37
Crystal Cove3.8 miles44
Laguna Niguel4.2 miles37
Three Arch Bay4.5 miles32

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 Laguna BeachAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1908566The 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 1660874. 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.