Vista, California
40 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1996. It stands in the Oceanside-Escondido census division. It lies in ZIP code area 92083. It lies near Breeze Hill. The Survey maps it on the San Marcos quadrangle. 98,381 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 325 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1893 to 1996The same ground, surveyed 103 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1893 against another survey:
On record in Vista
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
Rancho Guajome AdobeNational Historic Landmark · listed 1970
Charles A. Braun Houselisted 1986
Population over time
2 figuresVista grew from 93,834 to 98,381 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 | 93,834 | |
| 2020 | 98,381 | +4,547 (+5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
16 surveys from 40 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.
- 1893 USGS Escondido quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1901 USGS Escondido quadrangle1:62500, 6 printings
- 1901 USGS San Luis Rey quadrangle1:125000, 8 printings
- 1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 2 quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1942 USGS Escondido quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS San Marcos quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1949 USGS San Marcos quadrangle1:24000
- 1949 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS San Marcos quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1982 USGS Oceanside quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1996 USGS San Marcos quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
381 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 381 fires within 5 miles of Vista between 1992 and 2020, burning about 739 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 53 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 | 201 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 65 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 53 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 22 |
| Smoking | 13 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 11 |
| Debris and open burning | 9 |
| Natural | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Diego Unit | not named |
| 8 September 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | San Diego Unit | WINTERHAVEN |
| 7 September 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | 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 | not named |
| 6 September 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | San Diego Unit | TWIN OAKS |
| 6 September 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 4.0 acres | San Diego Unit | GOPHER FIRE |
| 4 September 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 3 September 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | San Diego Unit | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 38 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 38 workings within 5 miles of Vista: 25 past producers, 12 producers, 1 prospect. 12 still produce. What was taken out: Granite, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crystal Silica Company | Silica | Past Producer | ||
| Hogerman Property | Beryllium | Prospect | ||
| Marrow Quarry | Stone | Producer | ||
| Carlsbad Pit | Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Mission Road Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| South Coast Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| U. S. Silica Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Wyroc Plant | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Bryant, D. G., San Marcos | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Calavera Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
8 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Vista in 8 storm reports between 2000 and 2023: 3 flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 dust devil, 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vista | $60,000 | Strong thunderstorm winds damaged 8 buildings and downed power lines in Vista. A tornado is possible, but still under investigation. |
| April 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vista | $10,000 | no account filed |
| September 2004 | Dust Devil | Vista | $100 | A strong dust devil ripped a sign off a fence and threw it 40 feet away over a house. Other debris was seen flying through the air around the dust devil. |
| February 2023 | Flood | Vista | - | CalTrans report of flooding across both lanes of Foothill Drive due to heavy rain. |
| March 2022 | Flood | Vista | - | Vista Village Drive and High 78 off-ramp completely flooded towards bottom, reported by CHP Caltrans. No rain gauges in Vista, but Palomar-Carlsbad airport had 0.95 inch total and downstream Deer Springs had 1.27 inches. |
| July 2005 | Heavy Rain | Vista | - | Many residents in San Diego County awoke during the early morning hours of the 23rd to the sound of heavy rain and thunder as tropical moisture associated with the remnants of former hurricane Emily brought widespread thunderstorms from the desert to the coast. The Cooperative Observer in Vista measured 0.75 inches of rain and reported that lightning had sparked some fires. A nearby trained spotter measured 0.70 inches in 30 minutes. Considerable debris cloudiness would limit thunderstorm activity in San Diego County that afternoon, however much stronger heating and instability to the north triggered severe thunderstorms in Riverside County. |
| October 2004 | Flash Flood | Vista | - | Heavy rains at Gopher Canyon left 1 1/2 feet of water across roadways. |
| December 2002 | Flood | Vista | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ocean Hills | 2.6 miles | 48 | |
| Buena | 2.6 miles | 40 | |
| Talich | 4.0 miles | 48 | |
| Oceana | 4.7 miles | 48 | |
| Twin Oaks | 4.8 miles | 40 | |
| San Luis Rey | 4.8 miles | 48 | |
| Lake San Marcos | 5.4 miles | 40 | |
| San Marcos | 5.6 miles | 40 |
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 Vista | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q924241 | 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 1661645. 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.















