Selma, California
21 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1924 and the latest in 1982. It stands in the Selma census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93662. The Survey maps it on the Selma quadrangle. 24,674 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 308 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1924 to 1982The same ground, surveyed 58 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 figuresSelma grew from 23,219 to 24,674 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 | 23,219 | |
| 2020 | 24,674 | +1,455 (+6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 21 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.
- 1924 USGS Selma quadrangle1:31680
- 1946 USGS Selma quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1946 USGS Selma quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1947 USGS Selma quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1948 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1964 USGS Selma quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1966 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
439 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 439 fires within 5 miles of Selma between 1992 and 2020, burning about 2,038 acres in total. None started naturally. 47 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 | 233 |
| Debris and open burning | 76 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 47 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 47 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 25 |
| Smoking | 7 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fresno-Kings Unit | E BULAH AVE PARLIER |
| 9 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | VAN HORN |
| 9 September 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Fresno-Kings Unit | E MOUNTAIN VIEW AV /S BET |
| 8 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 6 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | E FLORAL AV /S DE WOLF AV |
| 6 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | E ADAMS AV / DE WOLF AV |
| 6 September 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Fresno-Kings Unit | MOUNTAIN |
| 6 September 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Fresno-Kings Unit | MOUNTAIN VIEW |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
11 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Selma in 11 storm reports between 1997 and 2020: 4 lightning, 2 flood, 2 funnel cloud, 1 thunderstorm wind. The reports record 15 injuries. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Selma | 15 hurt, $150,000 | no account filed |
| December 1997 | Flood | Selma | $5,000 | Minor flooding in the Selma area due to locally heavy rain with embedded thunderstorms. |
| May 2005 | Lightning | Selma | $1,000 | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Lightning | Selma | $1,000 | no account filed |
| March 2020 | Funnel Cloud | Selma | - | California Highway Patrol spotted a funnel cloud approximately 2 miles south of Selma. |
| May 2019 | Flood | Selma | - | A trained spotter reported minor street flooding south of Selma. |
| October 2007 | Hail | Selma | - | A NWS employee observed quarter sized hail at Mount Whitney and Peach Roads. |
| January 1998 | Lightning | Selma | - | Numerous power outages in the Selma area affected 3400 customers. A lightning strike took out a power pole at 1300 PST. |
| April 2006 | Lightning | Selma | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Funnel Cloud | Selma | - | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Heavy Rain | Selma | - | 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.
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 Selma | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q983593 | 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 1659624. 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.
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.












