Novato, California
24 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1914 and the latest in 1983. It stands in the Novato census division. It lies in ZIP code area 94945. It stands on Vineyard Creek. The Survey maps it on the Novato quadrangle. 53,225 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 30 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1914 to 1983The same ground, surveyed 69 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in Novato
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 2 records
Population over time
2 figuresNovato grew from 51,904 to 53,225 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 | 51,904 | |
| 2020 | 53,225 | +1,321 (+3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 24 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.
- 1914 USGS Petaluma quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1942 USGS Petaluma quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:250000
- 1949 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Novato quadrangle1:24000, 6 printings
- 1954 USGS Petaluma quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1962 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Napa quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
117 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 117 fires within 5 miles of Novato between 1992 and 2020, burning about 58 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/undetermined | 80 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 15 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 9 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 7 |
| Smoking | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 7 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Marin County Fire Department | not named |
| 6 September 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Sonoma-Lake Napa Unit | STAGE GULCH |
| 5 September 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 3 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 3 September 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 28 September 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 28 September 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | 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 18 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 18 workings within 5 miles of Novato: 8 unknowns, 5 occurrences, 4 producers, 1 past producer. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Manganese, Stone, Dimension. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Point | Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken | Occurrence | ||
| Freeman and Sondgroth | Flagstone | Producer | ||
| Ghilotti Bros. - Marin Co. | Stone, Dimension | Producer | ||
| Negro Hill | Stone | Occurrence | ||
| Knutte | Manganese | Producer | Psilomelane | |
| Knutte Deposit | Manganese | Unknown | 1942 | |
| Black Point | Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Sandpits | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Sandpits | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown |
Storms near this place
3 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Novato in 3 storm reports between 1998 and 2014: 3 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2014 | Flash Flood | Novato | $4,000,000 | Heavy rainfall produced significant rises on Novato Creek between highways 101 and 37 on the east side of the city of Novato. This led to an intentional breach of the levee on a 20 foot section to prevent floodwaters from reaching downtown businesses and nearby subdivisions. This same flooding also resulted in failure of a smaller portion of the levee and overtopped another section. Caltrans levees on highway 37 were breached and a culvert was washed out. |
| February 1998 | Flash Flood | Novato | - | Novato Creek |
| February 1998 | Flash Flood | Novato | - | no account filed |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Town | 0.8 miles | 24 | |
| Rafael Village | 2.9 miles | 24 | |
| Ignacio | 3.1 miles | 24 | |
| Dewitt | 3.2 miles | 24 | |
| Bel Marin Keys | 3.4 miles | 24 | |
| Black Point | 3.4 miles | 24 | |
| Burdell | 3.5 miles | 25 | |
| Marinwood | 5.1 miles | 24 |
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 Novato | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q851004 | 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 277612. 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.










