Ripley, California
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1942 and the latest in 1986. It stands in the Blythe census division. It lies in ZIP code area 92225. The Survey maps it on the Ripley quadrangle. 538 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 249 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1942 to 1986The same ground, surveyed 44 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Population over time
2 figuresRipley fell from 692 to 538 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 | 692 | |
| 2020 | 538 | -154 (-22%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 17 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.
- 1942 USGS Blythe quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1952 USGS Ripley quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1954 USGS Salton Sea quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Salton Sea quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS Salton Sea quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1963 USGS Salton Sea quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Salton Sea quadrangle1:250000
- 1986 USGS Blythe quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
115 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 115 fires within 5 miles of Ripley between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,206 acres in total. None started naturally. 10 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 | 44 |
| Debris and open burning | 27 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 17 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 10 |
| Smoking | 8 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 7 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 September 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Riverside Unit | LOCAL FIRE |
| 26 September 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5.0 acres | Riverside Unit | PETER D MCINTYRE AV / LOV |
| 25 September 1992 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Riverside Unit | LOCAL FIRE |
| 24 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 acres | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | NEIGHBOURS |
| 23 September 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | 20TH AV / NEIGHBOURS BL |
| 20 September 2001 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | California Desert District | CHAFFIN |
| 14 September 1997 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Riverside Unit | LOCAL FIRE |
| 8 August 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | 25TH AV / BUCK BL |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Ripley: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
2 since 2010Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ripley in 2 storm reports between 2010 and 2019: 1 tornado, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2010 | Tornado (EF0) | Ripley | $3,000,000 | Motorists reported a tornado crossing Interstate 10 near Intake Blvd, where two semi trucks were blown over. Numerous power poles down, and considerable damage to homes and other structures in and around Blythe. Roofs were blown off some homes. The rain-wrapped tornado had peak wind gusts estimated at 80 mph as it moved toward the northeast. Nearby Blythe airport recorded a peak gust of 55 mph, with thunderstorms in the area. To put this storm in perspective, record low pressure was observed at Blythe, 29.02 inches. |
| November 2019 | Flash Flood | Ripley | - | A large Pacific upper low centered west of Arizona led to widespread showers and isolated thunderstorms across portions of far southeast California, including far eastern Riverside County, during the evening hours on the 28th. The heavy rain resulted in some flash flooding which persisted into the early morning hours on November 29th. According to a report from the California Highway Patrol, flash flooding 4 miles southwest of Blythe resulted in roadway flooding at the intersection of State Route 78 and Seeley Road. The flooding occurred at roughly 0042PST. A Flash Flood Warning was in effect at the time of the flooding and fortunately, there were no reports of accidents due to the flooded roads. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rannells (historical) | 3.7 miles | 24 | |
| Miller Farms | 3.9 miles | 21 | |
| Blythe | 6.7 miles | 21 | |
| Mesa Verde | 6.8 miles | 17 | |
| East Blythe | 7.3 miles | 21 | |
| Mesaville | 11.7 miles | 20 | |
| Tosco (historical) | 11.9 miles | 18 | |
| Inca | 19.9 miles | 20 |
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 Ripley | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3476024 | 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 248224. 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.







