Lemon Grove, California
32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1904 and the latest in 1996. It stands in the San Diego census division. It lies in ZIP code area 91945. The Survey maps it on the National City quadrangle. 27,627 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 446 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1904 to 1996The same ground, surveyed 92 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1904 against another survey:
Population over time
2 figuresLemon Grove grew from 25,320 to 27,627 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 | 25,320 | |
| 2020 | 27,627 | +2,307 (+9%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
12 surveys from 32 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.
- 1904 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:62500, 9 printings
- 1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 2 quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1930 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:62500
- 1944 USGS National City quadrangle1:31680
- 1950 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000
- 1953 USGS National City quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1967 USGS National City quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1979 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
- 1996 USGS National City quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
553 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 553 fires within 5 miles of Lemon Grove between 1993 and 2020, burning about 612 acres in total. None started naturally. 108 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 | 307 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 108 |
| Debris and open burning | 49 |
| Smoking | 32 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 27 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 21 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 9 |
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 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | San Diego Unit | not named |
| 9 September 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | San Diego Unit | not named |
| 9 September 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.1 acres | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 8 September 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 7 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Diego Unit | not named |
| 7 September 2007 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 7 September 2005 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 7 September 2005 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 22 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 22 workings within 5 miles of Lemon Grove: 16 past producers, 6 producers. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Brick Company | Clay | Past Producer | ||
| Charles G. Moore Quarry | Granite | Past Producer | ||
| Chollas Valley Salt Co. | Salt | Past Producer | ||
| Moore Quarry Charles G. | Granite | Producer | ||
| Parsons Mine | Gold | Past Producer | ||
| Parsonsorange Blossommine | Gold | Producer | ||
| Sweetwater Creek | Salt | Past Producer | ||
| Independent Stone Co Quarry | Stone | Producer | ||
| San Diego Stone Co.Quarry | Stone | Producer | ||
| Unnamed Quarry | Stone | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
8 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lemon Grove in 8 storm reports between 2015 and 2025: 5 flood, 2 lightning, 1 heavy rain. The reports record 1 injury. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2017 | Flood | Lemon Grove | 1 hurt, $10,000 | A swift water rescue was conducted to rescue a man from a culvert. Urban and street flooding was reported in other portions of the San Diego metro. |
| March 2020 | Lightning | Lemon Grove | $10,000 | Broadcast media reported lightning struck a palm tree and burned a nearby house in Spring Valley between 0000 and 0200 PST on March 27th. Two injuries were reported. |
| June 2015 | Lightning | Lemon Grove | $5,000 | CHP reported several small fires started by lightning strikes. Vista: lightning struck the hillside and started a fire. Lightning started a fire at Poway Road near Community Road. Lightning also struck a hillside which started a fire near Bancroft Drive and Campo Road in La Mesa. CHP reported a power line and pole down across the roadway at Dye Road and Ramona Street due to lightning. |
| February 2025 | Heavy Rain | Lemon Grove | - | A trained spotter reported a total of 1.3 inches of rainfall. |
| January 2023 | Flood | Lemon Grove | - | Moderate to heavy rain occurred across the San Diego County metro area from 5-7 pm, resulting in flooding of major freeways. Highway 94 at Euclid Ave was flooded in Lanes 3 and 4; I-5 at Mile of Cars north was flooded, with a large amount of water in all lanes making it difficult for vehicles to drive; I-805 Bonita Rd offramp was flooded. |
| March 2023 | Flood | Lemon Grove | - | The Department of Highways reported roadway flooding at SR-74W and College Grove Avenue, with 0.45-0.55 inch of rain reported in the previous 24 hours. |
| March 2023 | Flood | Lemon Grove | - | SR94 near College Grove Drive had all lanes flooded with standing water. About 0.35 inch of rain fell in 90 minutes prior to this report, with 1.27 inches falling in the previous 30 hours. |
| January 2021 | Flood | Lemon Grove | - | Large pool of water in lane 1 with vehicles hydroplaning. 0.25 to 0.30 inches past 2 hours and thunderstorms passage. Occurred on the north connector of 125 to highway 94. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring Valley | 1.7 miles | 30 | |
| La Mesa | 1.8 miles | 37 | |
| Encanto | 2.3 miles | 32 | |
| Lomita | 2.3 miles | 32 | |
| Casa de Oro | 2.7 miles | 30 | |
| College Heights | 2.8 miles | 37 | |
| La Presa | 3.0 miles | 30 | |
| North Bay Terraces | 3.1 miles | 32 |
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 Lemon Grove | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q948206 | 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 1660902. 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.











