BlockBefore

Nucla, Colorado

21 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1916 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Nucla census division. It lies in ZIP code area 81424. It lies near First Park. The Survey maps it on the Nucla quadrangle. 585 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 5,787 feet above sea level.

Nucla within Montrose County

Population over time

3 figures

Nucla fell from 734 to 585 between 2000 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
2000734
2010711-23 (-3%)
2020585-126 (-18%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

12 surveys from 21 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

189 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 189 fires within 5 miles of Nucla between 1992 and 2019, burning about 303 acres in total. 174 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
Natural174
Recreation and ceremony5
Debris and open burning4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Equipment and vehicle use2
Smoking1

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
8 September 2003Natural4.5 acresSouthwest District, MontroseCOAL CYN
8 September 1995Naturalunder an acreSouthwest District, MontroseNORTH NAT
7 September 1995Naturalunder an acreSouthwest District, MontroseRAY
6 September 1995Naturalunder an acreSouthwest District, MontrosePINTO
4 September 2007Naturalunder an acreSouthwest District, MontroseKELLEY
4 September 2007Naturalunder an acreSouthwest District, MontroseWALKER
30 September 1998Naturalunder an acreSouthwest District, MontroseOVEN
3 September 2018Naturalunder an acreSouthwest District, MontroseNAVAJO MINE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Montrose County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 63 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 63 workings within 5 miles of Nucla: 23 occurrences, 21 past producers, 16 unknowns, 3 producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gold, Uranium, Vanadium. 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
UnknownRadium, Vanadium, UraniumPast Producer
S.M.R. #2Gold, SilverPast Producer
Woods Placer GroupGold, SilverPast Producer
Farmer BoyRadium, Uranium, VanadiumPast Producer
Little Bob Et Al ClaimsUranium, VanadiumOccurrenceCarnotite
StandardRadium, Uranium, VanadiumPast Producer
Bay StateRadiumUnknown
CummingsRadium, UraniumPast Producer
AprilUranium, VanadiumPast Producer
Cottonwood Little GypUranium, VanadiumPast Producer

Every working recorded in Montrose County

Storms near this place

10 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Nucla in 10 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 3 flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 wildfire, 1 lightning. 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 2023FloodNucla$10,000Accelerated snowmelt led to portions of Copper King Road to washout.
August 2002FloodNucla$10,000no account filed
May 2023FloodNucla$5,000Snowmelt produced a washout on National Forest System Road (NFSR) #525-Potter Basin road located at mile post 1.172 on the Ouray Ranger District, northeast of 25 Mesa Guard Station. The road was not passable and remained closed.
June 2000Thunderstorm WindNucla$2,000no account filed
October 2022HailNucla-Ping pong ball sized hail fell in Nucla in Montrose County.
July 2006Flash FloodNucla-no account filed
August 2003WildfireNucla-no account filed
May 2002WildfireNucla-no account filed
July 2001Thunderstorm WindNucla-no account filed
June 1996LightningNucla-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Montrose 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
Vancorum3.6 miles19
Naturita3.7 miles19
East Vancorum3.8 miles19
West Vancorum4.0 miles19
Mountain View4.2 miles15
Piñon7.8 miles15
Redvale9.5 miles16
Coventry11.9 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 NuclaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2206973The 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 185887. 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.