BlockBefore

Shafter, California

20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1930 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the Shafter census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93263. The Survey maps it on the Wasco quadrangle. 19,953 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 348 feet above sea level.

Shafter within Kern County

Then and now

1930 to 1993

The same ground, surveyed 63 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Shafter, surveyed 1993
Topographic sheet of Shafter, surveyed 1930

On record in Shafter

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

Population over time

2 figures

Shafter grew from 16,988 to 19,953 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.

YearPeople Change
201016,988
202019,953+2,965 (+17%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 20 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Fires near this place

56 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 56 fires within 5 miles of Shafter between 2005 and 2020, burning about 23 acres in total. None started naturally. 7 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/undetermined40
Arson/incendiarism7
Equipment and vehicle use5
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Smoking1
Debris and open burning1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
30 September 2018Arson/incendiarismunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
3 September 2007Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
21 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
2 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
16 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
10 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
6 August 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
2 August 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Kern County

Storms near this place

1 since 2016

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Shafter in 1 storm report in 2016: 1 heavy rain. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 2016Heavy RainShafter-Reports of nuisance flooding and street ponding were submitted via Facebook of flooding in Shafter California in Kern County at approximately 2020 PST.

Every storm recorded in Kern County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
North Shafter1.0 miles20
Thomas Lane1.1 miles27
Myricks Corner1.5 miles20
Smith Corner1.6 miles27
Mexican Colony2.2 miles27
Cherokee Strip2.4 miles27
Minter Village4.7 miles20
Palmo5.1 miles20

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 ShafterAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q985258The 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 1661428. 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.