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Watsonville, California

27 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1912 and the latest in 1995. It stands in the Watsonville census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95076. It stands on Salsipuedes Creek. The Survey maps it on the Watsonville West quadrangle. 52,590 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 29 feet above sea level.

Watsonville within Santa Cruz County

Then and now

1912 to 1995

The same ground, surveyed 83 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Watsonville, surveyed 1995
Topographic sheet of Watsonville, surveyed 1912

Compare 1912 against another survey:

On record in Watsonville

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 9 records

Population over time

2 figures

Watsonville grew from 51,199 to 52,590 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
201051,199
202052,590+1,391 (+3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

12 surveys from 27 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

478 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 478 fires within 5 miles of Watsonville between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,158 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 47 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/undetermined224
Equipment and vehicle use101
Debris and open burning55
Arson/incendiarism47
Misuse of fire by a minor23
Recreation and ceremony8
Power generation/transmission/distribution8
Smoking8
Natural4

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 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire ProtectionFREEDOM BL PAJARO_VALLEY
9 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire ProtectionGREEN
9 September 2013Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSan Mateo-Santa Cruz UnitVALLEY
9 September 2012Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSan Mateo-Santa Cruz UnitSAN ANDREAS
9 September 1999Naturalunder an acreEllicott Slough National Wildlife RefugeCARSON
9 September 1992Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreSan Benito-Monterey UnitP.G.& E. #17
8 September 2013Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresSan Mateo-Santa Cruz UnitTHURWACHTER
8 September 2003Debris and open burningunder an acreSan Mateo-Santa Cruz UnitPAULSEN

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Santa Cruz County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Watsonville: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Titanium. 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
Triumph Steel CoTitaniumOccurrence

Every working recorded in Santa Cruz County

Storms near this place

3 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Watsonville in 3 storm reports between 2001 and 2019: 2 hail, 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
November 2019FloodWatsonville-Hwy 152 at Holohan Rd eastbound lane under 1 foot of water.
September 2017HailWatsonville-Pea sized hail reported by spotter near Watsonville.
December 2001HailWatsonville-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Santa Cruz 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
Colache Town0.5 miles27
Freedom1.9 miles27
Nuga (historical)2.3 miles27
Johnston Corner3.0 miles27
Interlaken3.1 miles27
Amesti3.9 miles27
Larkin Valley3.9 miles27
Ellicott4.3 miles27

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 WatsonvilleAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q913543The 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 1660138. 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.