Redwood City, California
51 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the San Mateo census division. It lies in ZIP code area 94062. It stands on Arroyo Ojo De Agua. The Survey maps it on the Palo Alto quadrangle. 84,292 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 20 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1897 to 1997The same ground, surveyed 100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1897 against another survey:
On record in Redwood City
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 10 records
John Dielmann Houselisted 2015
Lathrop Houselisted 1973
New Sequoia Theater Buildinglisted 1994
John Offerman Houselisted 2015
Redwood City Historic Commercial Buildingslisted 1977
San Mateo County Courthouselisted 1977
Union Cemeterylisted 1983- POLARIS (research vessel)listed 2015
- Redwood City Woman's Clublisted 2021
- Sequoia Union High Schoollisted 1995
Population over time
2 figuresRedwood City grew from 76,815 to 84,292 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 | 76,815 | |
| 2020 | 84,292 | +7,477 (+10%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
22 surveys from 51 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.
- 1897 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
- 1899 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500, 11 printings
- 1902 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:125000, 9 printings
- 1941 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
- 1943 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
- 1948 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1953 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1991 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1997 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
246 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 246 fires within 5 miles of Redwood City between 1992 and 2020, burning about 116 acres in total. None started naturally. 22 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 | 144 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 34 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 22 |
| Smoking | 20 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 10 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 6 |
| Debris and open burning | 5 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 4 |
| Other causes | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | NB HWY 280 / EDGEWOOD OF |
| 7 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | not named |
| 6 September 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | EDGEWOOD |
| 6 September 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.5 acres | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | OYSTER POINT |
| 6 September 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | PIPE |
| 5 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | not named |
| 5 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | not named |
| 5 September 2009 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | 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 42 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 42 workings within 5 miles of Redwood City: 21 producers, 19 past producers, 2 unknowns. 21 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone, Mercury, Salt. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ideal Cement Company | Limestone, General, Clay | Producer | ||
| Redwood City Operation | Halite | Producer | ||
| Granite Rock | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Granite Rock | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Kaiser Gypsum | Gypsum-Anhydrite | Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Kaiser Gypsum | Gypsum-Anhydrite | Past Producer | ||
| Redwood Material Co. | Manganese | Producer | ||
| Redwood Material Co. | Manganese | Past Producer | ||
| Redwood City Operation | Salt | Past Producer | ||
| Redwood City Plant | Salt | Producer |
Storms near this place
5 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Redwood City in 5 storm reports between 1996 and 2022: 3 heavy rain, 1 hail, 1 lightning. 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 2022 | Heavy Rain | Redwood City | - | Redwood City with 4.47. ||12/31/2022 was the 3rd wettest in a record that goes back to 1906. The daily rainfall made up 42.8% of December 2022's rainfall.||The wettest day on record at Redwood City was back on 10/13/1962 with 4.88 inches. |
| August 2020 | Lightning | Redwood City | - | Lightning struck a redwood tree in Redwood City https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/08/16/lightning-from-rare-bay-area-thunderstorm-leaves-damage-in-its-wake/. |
| January 2019 | Hail | Redwood City | - | Small thunderstorm cell moved just south of Redwood City. Public reported small hail. |
| February 2015 | Heavy Rain | Redwood City | - | A 72 hour rainfall total of 5.43 inches was measured from Emerald Lake Hills at elevation 472 feet. This was the highest storm total in San Mateo County. |
| March 1996 | Heavy Rain (F0) | Redwood City | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Redwood Junction | 1.0 miles | 51 | |
| Palomar Park | 1.5 miles | 37 | |
| Emerald Lake | 1.9 miles | 37 | |
| San Carlos | 2.0 miles | 43 | |
| Emerald Lake Hills | 2.2 miles | 37 | |
| Lloyden Park | 2.2 miles | 51 | |
| Farm Hills | 2.2 miles | 37 | |
| North Fair Oaks | 2.2 miles | 51 |
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 Redwood City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q505549 | 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 277584. 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.





















