Wasco, California
20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1930 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the Wasco census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93280. The Survey maps it on the Wasco quadrangle. 27,047 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 328 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1930 to 1993The 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.


On record in Wasco
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 1 record
Wasco Union High School Auditoriumlisted 1997
Population over time
2 figuresWasco grew from 25,545 to 27,047 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 | 25,545 | |
| 2020 | 27,047 | +1,502 (+6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 20 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.
- 1930 USGS Wasco quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
- 1943 USGS Wasco quadrangle1:62500
- 1948 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS Wasco quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1966 USGS Bakersfield quadrangle1:250000
- 1993 USGS Delano quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
25 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 25 fires within 5 miles of Wasco between 1994 and 2020, burning about 697 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 2 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 | 16 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 September 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 9 August 2011 | Debris and open burning | 1.5 acres | Kern County Fire Department | not named |
| 14 August 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 91 acres | Kern County Fire Department | not named |
| 11 August 1998 | Natural | under an acre | Central California District | ESPONDA |
| 8 July 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 30 July 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 3 July 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 27 July 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Kern County Fire Department | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
4 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wasco in 4 storm reports between 1997 and 2019: 2 lightning, 1 funnel cloud, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2019 | Flood | Wasco | - | California Highway Patrol reported Kimberlina Rd. was impassible between Scofield Ave. and Jumper Ave. due to flooding. |
| February 2010 | Funnel Cloud | Wasco | - | A funnel cloud was observed near the intersection of state routes 65 and 165. |
| September 1999 | Lightning | Wasco | - | no account filed |
| March 1997 | Lightning | Wasco | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neufeld | 1.8 miles | 20 | |
| Palmo | 2.5 miles | 20 | |
| Leonards (historical) | 4.5 miles | 19 | |
| Elmo | 5.9 miles | 20 | |
| Myricks Corner | 6.0 miles | 20 | |
| North Shafter | 6.4 miles | 20 | |
| Famoso | 7.0 miles | 20 | |
| Petro (historical) | 7.1 miles | 20 |
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 Wasco | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q985255 | 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 1661652. 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.









