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Onyx, California

28 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1906 and the latest in 1978. It stands in the Lake Isabella census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93255. It lies near Smith Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Onyx quadrangle. 457 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,795 feet above sea level.

Onyx within Kern County

Then and now

1906 to 1978

The same ground, surveyed 72 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Onyx, surveyed 1978
Topographic sheet of Onyx, surveyed 1906

Population over time

2 figures

Onyx fell from 475 to 457 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
2010475
2020457-18 (-4%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

11 surveys from 28 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

75 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 75 fires within 5 miles of Onyx between 1992 and 2020, burning about 3,323 acres in total. 15 started naturally. 3 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/undetermined30
Natural15
Equipment and vehicle use11
Debris and open burning7
Arson/incendiarism3
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Recreation and ceremony2
Fireworks1
Other causes1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Smoking1

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
4 September 1997Naturalunder an acreSequoia National ForestBART
3 September 2003Naturalunder an acreCentral California DistrictUNNAMED FIRE 0377
3 September 1997Naturalunder an acreCentral California DistrictONYX
17 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCentral California DistrictHIGHWAY
13 September 2011Naturalunder an acreSequoia National ForestCAP
13 September 2011Naturalunder an acreSequoia National ForestBLANKET
13 September 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresCentral California DistrictEASY
8 August 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCentral California DistrictKELSO 2

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Kern County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Onyx: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Tungsten. 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
StardustTungstenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Kern County

Storms near this place

11 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Onyx in 11 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 5 heavy rain, 3 flash flood, 1 wildfire, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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
August 1997WildfireOnyx$3,000,000Named the "Jacks Fire"; Southwest of Walker Pass in the Southern Sierra Nevada in Sequoia National Forest. It was a lightning caused fire from thunderstorms developing from monsoonal moisture. It burned a total of 5693 acres. No injuries or structures were reported lost.
September 1997Flash FloodOnyx$5,000Thunderstorm passage through the East Lake Isabella area of Kern County brought enough rainfall to generage water flow over State Highway 178 at Onyx from Scodie Creek. Hail was also reported with this thunderstorm up to 1/2 inch in diameter.
July 2024Heavy RainOnyx-The Walker Pass RAWS measured 0.52 inches of rainfall between 1900 and 2000 PDT.
August 2023Flash FloodOnyx-Kern County officials reported a road closure of South Kelso Valley Rd. and Birch Springs Pass due to heavy flooding.
March 2019Debris FlowOnyx-California Highway Patrol reported a rock slide covering the traffic lanes on State Route 178 at Walker Pass.
January 2015Heavy RainOnyx-Heavy rain contributed to rocks sliding across the roadway.
June 2015Flash FloodOnyx-Heavy rainfall occurred across the mountains in Kern County which lead to a mud/debris flow across S. Kelso Valley road and Zimmerman St. in rural Kern County. This debris flow removed a 20 foot section of the roadway, though cost of the damage was not reported.
October 2015Heavy RainOnyx-Reports were received about some mud and rock on Highway 178, 2 miles east of Canebreak Fire Station. The mud and rock was due to heavy rainfall occurring.
October 2015Heavy RainOnyx-At 1612 PST, law enforcement notified the office that a large boulder was blocking the roadway and that there was localized flooding of water in Onyx. This was due to heavy rainfall earlier, though no evidence of what caused the boulder to fall into the roadway. The area is a canyon so the heavy rainfall may have caused it to fall.
July 2015Thunderstorm WindOnyx-RAWS station at Bird Springs Pass reported thunderstorm outflow wind gusts of 60 MPH at 12:27 UTC, with sustain winds of 22 MPH.
July 2011Heavy RainOnyx-In only 33 minutes, a heavy thunderstorm dropped 0.56 inches of rain.

Every storm recorded in Kern 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
Weldon4.1 miles28
Canebrake5.1 miles28
Bella Vista6.0 miles28
Canebrake (historical)8.0 miles29
South Lake8.6 miles28
Mountain Mesa10.4 miles28
Squirrel Mountain Valley11.0 miles28
Kernville (historical)11.6 miles28

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 OnyxAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3301670The 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 1661150. 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.