BlockBefore

Oakland, California

37 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1895 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the Oakland census division. It lies in ZIP code area 94612. It stands on Glen Echo Creek. The Survey maps it on the Oakland West quadrangle. 440,646 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 43 feet above sea level.

Oakland within Alameda County

Then and now

1895 to 1993

The same ground, surveyed 98 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Oakland, surveyed 1993
Topographic sheet of Oakland, surveyed 1895

On record in Oakland

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 12 of 61 shown

Every listing in Alameda County

Population over time

4 figures

Oakland grew from 1,543 to 440,646 between 1860 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
18601,543
1996367,000
2010390,724+23,724 (+6%)
2020440,646+49,922 (+13%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

17 surveys from 37 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

242 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 242 fires within 5 miles of Oakland between 1992 and 2020, burning about 285 acres in total. None started naturally. 28 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/undetermined168
Arson/incendiarism28
Smoking18
Misuse of fire by a minor15
Equipment and vehicle use9
Debris and open burning4

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 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSanta Clara Unitnot named
9 September 2008Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
8 September 2005Debris and open burningunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
8 September 2004Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresSanta Clara UnitSMALL
7 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSanta Clara Unitnot named
6 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
6 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
6 September 2018Missing 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 Alameda County

Mines and quarries near this place

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Oakland: 6 producers, 1 past producer. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Kaiser Industries CorpClayProducer
Ada Sand and Gravel Pit No 2Sand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Kaiser Sand & GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Kaiser Sand & GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Moller PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
QuarrySand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Sanderling DredgeSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Alameda County

Storms near this place

16 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Oakland in 16 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 7 hail, 4 flood, 3 flash flood, 2 heavy rain. 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 2017HailOakland$5,000,000Damage dollar amounts is a low estimate. Impacts are not fully known, but any individual car crash would likely exceed this amount.
December 1996Heavy RainOakland$1,000,000no account filed
December 1996Heavy RainOakland$1,000,000no account filed
December 2025Flash FloodOakland-Vehicle stuck in three feet of water on westbound Interstate 580 west of 35th Avenue.
January 2020FloodOakland-Roadway flooding at I-580 W and Coolidge Ave off ramp. Number 1 lane flooded from Coolidge to Grand.
January 2020FloodOakland-Roadway flooding at WB-580 and Coolidge, slow lane flooded.
January 2020FloodOakland-Roadway flooding at I-580 W and Coolidge Ave off ramp.
November 2019HailOakland-Public reporting pea-sized hail in Alameda. Reported via twitter.
March 2018HailOakland-Several reports of pea-sized hail in Oakland via social media.
April 2018HailOakland-Small accumulating hail observed in Oakland.
April 2018HailOakland-Small hail observed in east Oakland.
April 2018HailOakland-Media report showing accumulating small hail in Oakland.
February 1999HailOakland-Smal hail fell in and around the Oakland Zoo.
January 1998Flash FloodOakland-flooded basement at Whittier Elementary School
December 2002FloodOakland-no account filed
December 1996Flash FloodOakland-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Alameda 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
Chinatown0.3 miles37
Adams Point1.1 miles37
Peralta Villa1.1 miles37
Clinton (historical)1.2 miles37
West Oakland1.4 miles37
Grand Lake1.4 miles42
Campbell Village1.5 miles37
Emeryville2.0 miles37

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 OaklandAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q17042The 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 277566. 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.