BlockBefore

Maxwell, California

15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1906 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Central Colusa census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95955. The Survey maps it on the Maxwell quadrangle. 1,067 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 92 feet above sea level.

Maxwell within Colusa County

Then and now

1906 to 1994

The same ground, surveyed 88 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Maxwell, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Maxwell, surveyed 1906

Population over time

2 figures

Maxwell fell from 1,103 to 1,067 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
20101,103
20201,067-36 (-3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 15 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

14 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of Maxwell between 1992 and 2018, burning about 776 acres in total. None started naturally. None was 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/undetermined9
Equipment and vehicle use3
Debris and open burning1
Recreation and ceremony1

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
9 September 1993Equipment and vehicle use15 acresDelevan National Wildlife RefugeTRACT 27
28 September 2002Debris and open burning3.0 acresDelevan National Wildlife RefugeD43 ESC
22 September 2006Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresSacramento National Wildlife RefugeI-5 RENNICK THREAT
14 August 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined60 acresSonoma-Lake Napa UnitMAXWELL
12 August 1992Equipment and vehicle use190 acresSonoma-Lake Napa UnitMILLS
31 July 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreDelevan National Wildlife RefugeDELEVAN #1
10 July 1995Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresSonoma-Lake Napa UnitSITES
6 June 2018Recreation and ceremony2.0 acresSan Luis National Wildlife Refuge5 ON 5

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Colusa County

Storms near this place

4 since 2011

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Maxwell in 4 storm reports between 2011 and 2017: 2 tornado, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 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
February 2017FloodMaxwell$7,000,000The town of Maxwell, CA started flooding near 2:00 am due to rain in the last day causing local creeks to rise. The Colusa County Sheriff's Office posted a voluntary evacuation notice at 8:30 am, with some people evacuated by boat. Interstate 5 near Maxwell was under a foot of water, causing travel disruption. |Water inundated most of the homes in a 9-block area in Maxwell. Damage to an elementary school, a sheriff's substation, roads and 78 homes could total $7 million, according to the Colusa County Office of Emergency Services.
April 2016Thunderstorm WindMaxwell-Two gustnados were sightednear the Interstate 5 exit at Maxwell. One crossed I-5 and quickly dispersed. The second one formed breifly off I 5 and was videotaped by a passing vehicle. A thunderstorm was west of the area, but there was no connection between the gustnado to the storm. No damage was reported.
February 2013Tornado (EF0)Maxwell-A brief landspout tornado was reported by the public and verified as a landspout by video footage. This tornado was rated as an EF0 that occurred at approximately 2PM in a field south of Fairview Rd by Danley Rd. No damage and no injuries were associated with this tornado.
March 2011Tornado (EF0)Maxwell-At approximately 3:05 pm an EF0 tornado touched down in a pasture about 2 miles west of downtown Maxwell. The pasture is located just north of Maxwell Sites Rd., between McDermott Rd. and Danley Rd. There was no damage observed, but several witnesses observed a brief touchdown in the grassy field, which is used as pasture for a herd of buffalo. There were no injuries nor fatalities.

Every storm recorded in Colusa 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
Cortena4.0 miles17
Mills Orchards4.4 miles18
Lurline (historical)4.9 miles17
Delevan5.4 miles15
Delphos6.0 miles17
Sites8.1 miles18
Williams8.7 miles17
Colusa Rancheria9.0 miles16

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 MaxwellAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q6796063The 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 228245. 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.