San Carlos, California
43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1892 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the San Mateo census division. It lies in ZIP code area 94070. It lies near Brittan Knoll. The Survey maps it on the San Mateo quadrangle. 30,722 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 30 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1892 to 1997The same ground, surveyed 105 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1892 against another survey:
On record in San Carlos
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 3 records
Nathanial Brittan Party Houselisted 1994
Southern Pacific Depotlisted 1984- Timby Houselisted 2024
Population over time
2 figuresSan Carlos grew from 28,406 to 30,722 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 | 28,406 | |
| 2020 | 30,722 | +2,316 (+8%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
22 surveys from 43 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.
- 1892 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:62500
- 1896 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:62500
- 1899 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:62500, 6 printings
- 1915 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:62500, 6 printings
- 1939 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1943 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1947 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:24000
- 1948 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1949 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:24000
- 1955 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:24000, 6 printings
- 1957 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1978 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1993 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:24000
- 1997 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
311 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 311 fires within 5 miles of San Carlos between 1992 and 2020, burning about 146 acres in total. 1 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/undetermined | 173 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 52 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 28 |
| Smoking | 27 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 13 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 8 |
| Debris and open burning | 5 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Other causes | 1 |
| Natural | 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 San Carlos: 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
3 since 2010Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names San Carlos in 3 storm reports between 2010 and 2024: 1 flood, 1 hail, 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2010 | Flood | San Carlos | $15,000 | Heavy rain caused Pulgas Creek to overflow its banks and flood some classrooms at Central Middle School in San Carlos. Also, several streets were blocked off in low-lying areas just west of US Highway 101, including Taylor Avenue in San Carlos and parts of Rolison Road in Redwood City. In Atherton, officials closed March Road from Middlefield Road to Fair Oaks Avenue because a creek had begun to flood. |
| February 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | San Carlos | $10 | Three inch tree limbs were broken, and power lines were downed. |
| March 2018 | Hail | San Carlos | - | Social media photos showing pea-sized hail in San Carlos. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belmont | 1.2 miles | 43 | |
| Devonshire | 1.3 miles | 43 | |
| Palomar Park | 1.8 miles | 37 | |
| Redwood Shores | 1.8 miles | 36 | |
| Redwood City | 2.0 miles | 51 | |
| Belle Monte | 2.1 miles | 43 | |
| Emerald Lake | 2.8 miles | 37 | |
| Redwood Junction | 2.9 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 San Carlos | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q383234 | 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 277592. 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.





















