Laton, California
18 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1927 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the Laton census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93242. It stands on Cole Slough. The Survey maps it on the Laton quadrangle. 1,622 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 259 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1927 to 1993The same ground, surveyed 66 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 figuresLaton fell from 1,824 to 1,622 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 | 1,824 | |
| 2020 | 1,622 | -202 (-11%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 18 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.
- 1927 USGS Laton quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
- 1948 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1953 USGS Laton quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1966 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1993 USGS Visalia quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
117 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 117 fires within 5 miles of Laton between 1992 and 2020, burning about 348 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 | 61 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 22 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 14 |
| Debris and open burning | 11 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Smoking | 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 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Fresno-Kings Unit | LETSON IC. |
| 9 September 1993 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Fresno-Kings Unit | FKU-9606 |
| 8 September 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Fresno-Kings Unit | DE WOODY |
| 8 September 2004 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Fresno-Kings Unit | 4FKU011434 |
| 8 September 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Fresno-Kings Unit | FKU-38673 |
| 6 September 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Fresno-Kings Unit | RIVER |
| 5 September 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 30 September 1998 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Fresno-Kings Unit | STEPANIAN |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
2 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Laton in 2 storm reports between 1998 and 2019: 1 flood, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1998 | Flood | Laton | $50,000 | A Thunderstorm deluge caused the roof of a car wash to collapse in southeast Fresno City. As measured by ASOS at FAT 1.23" of rain fell between 1900-2000PST (0.72" between 1856-1927PST) with a storm total of 1.80". This rain and additonal rainy days combined to establish a new June rainfall record for Fresno, CA, at 1.93" (the old record was 1.66" in 1939). There were numerous instances of flooded streets all over Fresno from the storm system swinging from south to north through the area. The thunderstorm activity...between gusty wind and torrential rain... led to the disruption of power to over 25,000 residents in Central Fresno County. The rainfall season total stands at 20.31"... the third wettest on record behind 1982-83 and 1968-69. Agricultural losses continue to mount. As the unusual amount of rain from June adds disease to area strawberries and vineyards. Most crops continue to be 3-6 weeks behind a normal season growth. |
| February 2019 | Funnel Cloud | Laton | - | An off duty NWS employee reported a funnel cloud on State Highway 43 between Hanford and Selma. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lillis (historical) | 1.7 miles | 18 | |
| Clint | 4.6 miles | 18 | |
| Wildflower | 4.9 miles | 20 | |
| Camden | 5.9 miles | 18 | |
| Conejo | 6.1 miles | 20 | |
| Robinson (historical) | 8.5 miles | 18 | |
| Kingsburg | 9.0 miles | 21 | |
| Riverdale | 9.2 miles | 18 |
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 Laton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2386043 | 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 1660899. 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.









