San Fernando, California
38 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1900 and the latest in 1995. It stands in the San Fernando Valley census division. It lies in ZIP code area 91340. It stands on East Canyon Channel. The Survey maps it on the San Fernando quadrangle. 23,946 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,070 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1900 to 1995The same ground, surveyed 95 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1900 against another survey:
On record in San Fernando
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 2 records
Well No. 4, Pico Canyon Oil FieldNational Historic Landmark · listed 1966
Lopez Adobelisted 1971
Population over time
3 figuresSan Fernando grew from 3,204 to 23,946 between 1920 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1920 | 3,204 | |
| 2010 | 23,645 | |
| 2020 | 23,946 | +301 (+1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
16 surveys from 38 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.
- 1900 USGS Fernando quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1900 USGS San Fernando quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1901 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
- 1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1927 USGS Pacoima quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1940 USGS San Fernando quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1945 USGS San Fernando quadrangle1:62500
- 1949 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS San Fernando quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1966 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS San Fernando quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1975 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1979 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:100000
- 1995 USGS San Fernando quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
346 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 346 fires within 5 miles of San Fernando between 1992 and 2020, burning about 26,100 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 55 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 | 163 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 61 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 55 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 13 |
| Fireworks | 13 |
| Debris and open burning | 11 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 9 |
| Smoking | 8 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 7 |
| Other causes | 5 |
| 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 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Angeles National Forest | PAXTON |
| 9 September 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Angeles National Forest | OLDS |
| 7 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Angeles National Forest | RANGE |
| 6 September 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Angeles National Forest | PICKUP |
| 6 September 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Angeles National Forest | not named |
| 4 September 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Angeles National Forest | KAGEL |
| 30 September 1999 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Angeles National Forest | TRASH |
| 30 September 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Angeles National Forest | PAXTON |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 31 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 31 workings within 5 miles of San Fernando: 29 past producers, 2 prospects. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Limestone, General, Asbestos, Granite, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ferro-Titan | Titanium | Past Producer | ||
| Pacoima Hill Quarry | Granite, Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Fiber Queen | Asbestos | Past Producer | Metamorphic | |
| Fiber Queen | Asbestos | Past Producer | ||
| San Fernando | Limestone, General | Past Producer | ||
| San Fernando Deposit | Limestone, General | Prospect | ||
| Wilson Deposit | Limestone, General | Prospect | ||
| Arrow Rock Co.-Sun Valley Plant | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Big Tujunga Plant | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Borges Rock | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
3 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names San Fernando in 3 storm reports between 1993 and 2026: 1 hail, 1 flash flood, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2026 | Thunderstorm Wind | San Fernando | - | Strong thunderstorm winds knocked down several trees in the San Fernando area. |
| February 2023 | Flash Flood | San Fernando | - | Heavy rainfall produced flooding as well as mud and debris flows on Interstate 405 near Rinaldi Drive in the San Fernando Valley. |
| February 1993 | Hail | San Fernando | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pacoima | 1.5 miles | 38 | |
| Sylmar | 1.9 miles | 40 | |
| Mission Hills | 2.3 miles | 38 | |
| Hickson (historical) | 2.3 miles | 38 | |
| Olive View | 2.9 miles | 40 | |
| El Merrie Dell | 3.3 miles | 41 | |
| Kagel Canyon | 3.4 miles | 41 | |
| Wahoo (historical) | 3.6 miles | 47 |
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 Fernando | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q846406 | 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 1652786. 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.















