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Thermal, California

30 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1904 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Coachella Valley census division. It lies in ZIP code area 92274. The Survey maps it on the Indio quadrangle. 2,676 people lived here at the 2020 count. It lies 138 feet below sea level.

Thermal within Riverside County

Then and now

1904 to 1984

The same ground, surveyed 80 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Thermal, surveyed 1984
Topographic sheet of Thermal, surveyed 1904

Population over time

2 figures

Thermal fell from 2,865 to 2,676 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
20102,865
20202,676-189 (-7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

13 surveys from 30 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

705 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 705 fires within 5 miles of Thermal between 1992 and 2020, burning about 14,142 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 59 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/undetermined380
Equipment and vehicle use85
Misuse of fire by a minor66
Arson/incendiarism59
Debris and open burning58
Smoking30
Recreation and ceremony19
Natural4
Power generation/transmission/distribution3
Railroad operations and maintenance1

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
9 September 2005Equipment and vehicle use10 acresRiverside UnitAIRPORT
8 September 1995Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreRiverside UnitLOCAL
7 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreRiverside Unit57
5 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire ProtectionAVE 47 / TYLER ST
5 September 2002Natural50 acresRiverside UnitLOCAL
30 September 2007Arson/incendiarismunder an acreCalifornia Desert DistrictUNNAMED FIRE 2756
30 September 2001Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreRiverside UnitLOCAL
30 September 1992Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreRiverside UnitLOCAL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Riverside County

Mines and quarries near this place

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Thermal: 2 producers, 1 occurrence, 1 past producer. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Red Top Clay DepositClayOccurrenceSedimentary
Airport Blvd. PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Thermal PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Riverside County

Storms near this place

1 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Thermal in 1 storm report in 2001: 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2001Flash FloodThermal$1,200,000no account filed

Every storm recorded in Riverside 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
Sandy Korner2.2 miles30
Coachella3.3 miles30
Vista Santa Rosa4.3 miles30
Valerie5.4 miles28
Martinez5.4 miles28
One Hundred Palms5.7 miles28
Mecca5.8 miles28
Indio6.9 miles30

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 ThermalAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q133921The 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 250426. 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.