BlockBefore

Los Alamos, California

31 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1905 and the latest in 1989. It stands in the Solvang-Santa Ynez census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93440. It lies near CaƱada De Las Calaveras. The Survey maps it on the Los Alamos quadrangle. 1,839 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 568 feet above sea level.

Los Alamos within Santa Barbara County

Then and now

1905 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 84 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Los Alamos, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Los Alamos, surveyed 1905

On record in Los Alamos

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Los Alamos fell from 1,890 to 1,839 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.

YearPeople Change
20101,890
20201,839-51 (-3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

15 surveys from 31 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

55 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 55 fires within 5 miles of Los Alamos between 2009 and 2020, burning about 453 acres in total. None started naturally. 4 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/undetermined46
Arson/incendiarism4
Equipment and vehicle use2
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Debris and open burning1

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
6 September 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSanta Barbara County Fire Departmentnot named
29 September 2012Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSanta Barbara County Fire Departmentnot named
22 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
20 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
15 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
14 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
29 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
28 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Santa Barbara County

Storms near this place

4 since 2023

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Los Alamos in 4 storm reports between 2023 and 2026: 4 flash flood. 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
January 2026Flash FloodLos Alamos-Heavy rainfall generated flash flooding and debris flows that resulted in an 8 mile closure of Highway 135, from Los Alamos to the Harris Grade.
February 2024Flash FloodLos Alamos-Significant flooding forced the closure of Highway 135 near Los Alamos in Santa Barbara county.
January 2023Flash FloodLos Alamos-Heavy rainfall produced flash flooding along Highway 135 at the intersection of Batchelder Road.
March 2023Flash FloodLos Alamos-Heavy rainfall produced flash flooding in Santa Barbara county. Highway 135 was closed from Bell Street to the Harris Grade, due to significant mud and water flowing across the roadway.

Every storm recorded in Santa Barbara 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
Palmer (historical)6.3 miles29
Roadamite (historical)7.3 miles29
Bicknell7.9 miles29
Jonata Park8.1 miles25
Sisquoc8.3 miles29
Mission Hills9.3 miles32
Mission La Purisima (historical)9.4 miles32
Mesa Oaks9.7 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 Los AlamosAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1915491The 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 245130. 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.