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Williams, California

17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1907 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Central Colusa census division. It lies in ZIP code area 95987. The Survey maps it on the Williams quadrangle. 5,538 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 82 feet above sea level.

Williams within Colusa County

Then and now

1907 to 1994

The same ground, surveyed 87 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Williams, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Williams, surveyed 1907

Population over time

2 figures

Williams grew from 5,123 to 5,538 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
20105,123
20205,538+415 (+8%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 17 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

20 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 20 fires within 5 miles of Williams between 2002 and 2014, burning about 101 acres in total. None started naturally. None was 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/undetermined13
Debris and open burning4
Equipment and vehicle use1
Smoking1
Firearms and explosives use1

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
3 September 2002Debris and open burningunder an acreColusa National Wildlife RefugeCOL T5
25 September 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresColusa National Wildlife RefugeLONESTAR #2
24 September 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined30 acresColusa National Wildlife RefugeLONESTAR
18 September 2003Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresSan Mateo-Santa Cruz UnitBLACK
16 September 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreColusa National Wildlife RefugeWARE RD. #1
1 September 2011Smokingunder an acreSonoma-Lake Napa Unitnot named
29 July 2011Debris and open burningunder an acreSonoma-Lake Napa Unitnot named
2 July 2011Debris and open burning1.0 acresSonoma-Lake Napa Unitnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Colusa 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 Williams: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Chromium. 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
Stella ProspectChromiumOccurrenceChromite

Every working recorded in Colusa County

Storms near this place

5 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Williams in 5 storm reports between 1999 and 2025: 3 flood, 1 wildfire, 1 tornado. The reports record 1 death and 10 injuries. 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
December 2025FloodWilliams1 killed, 3 hurtAround 3 PM PST on December 26th, a vehicle hydroplaned and crashed on Interstate 5 in Williams, CA in heavy rain. Initially there were 2 minor injuries and 2 critical injuries, but later one of the critical injuries was updated to a fatality.
October 1999WildfireWilliams7 hurtno account filed
March 2011Tornado (EF0)Williams$70,000At approximately 3:00 pm an EF0 tornado touched down about a mile WSW of downtown Williams in Colusa County, near the intersection of Hwy 20 and Davis Road. The maximum wind speed of the tornado was estimated at 80 mph with a damage path of three quarters of a mile. The damage path was in an east-northeast direction. No injuries nor fatalities have been reported. The tornado damaged six homes, an out-building, two vehicles, and a home radio tower.
February 2019FloodWilliams-Via a Facebook live with CBS13 and the Williams Fire Department Chief reported that 6 swift water rescues have occurred today. One was on going at the time of report which included a child and an adult. The fire chief estimated that there was 3-6 feet of flowing water over the roads. Both I-5 and old Highway 99 were closed for flooding.
January 2017FloodWilliams-State Route 20 in Colusa County closed in both directions from Husted Rd in Williams to approximately 3 miles east of Williams at Lone State Rd. due to flooding.

Every storm recorded in Colusa 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
Delphos2.7 miles17
Cortena4.9 miles17
Genevra6.6 miles16
Lurline (historical)6.8 miles17
Colusa8.5 miles19
Maxwell8.7 miles15
Arbee9.0 miles24
Colusa Rancheria9.3 miles16

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 WilliamsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2685585The 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 1652653. 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.