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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.

Wasco 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 Wasco, surveyed 1993
Topographic sheet of Wasco, surveyed 1930

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

Population over time

2 figures

Wasco 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.

YearPeople Change
201025,545
202027,047+1,502 (+6%)

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

25 since 1994

Regional 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/undetermined16
Equipment and vehicle use2
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Arson/incendiarism2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Debris and open burning1
Natural1

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
25 September 2008Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
9 August 2011Debris and open burning1.5 acresKern County Fire Departmentnot named
14 August 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined91 acresKern County Fire Departmentnot named
11 August 1998Naturalunder an acreCentral California DistrictESPONDA
8 July 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
30 July 2006Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
3 July 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
27 July 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKern County Fire Departmentnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Kern County

Storms near this place

4 since 1997

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2019FloodWasco-California Highway Patrol reported Kimberlina Rd. was impassible between Scofield Ave. and Jumper Ave. due to flooding.
February 2010Funnel CloudWasco-A funnel cloud was observed near the intersection of state routes 65 and 165.
September 1999LightningWasco-no account filed
March 1997LightningWasco-no account filed

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
Neufeld1.8 miles20
Palmo2.5 miles20
Leonards (historical)4.5 miles19
Elmo5.9 miles20
Myricks Corner6.0 miles20
North Shafter6.4 miles20
Famoso7.0 miles20
Petro (historical)7.1 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 WascoAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q985255The 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.