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Fort Walton Beach, Florida

18 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1938 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Fort Walton Beach census division. It lies in ZIP code area 32548. The Survey maps it on the Fort Walton Beach quadrangle. 20,922 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 7 feet above sea level.

Fort Walton Beach within Okaloosa County

Then and now

1938 to 1994

The same ground, surveyed 56 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Fort Walton Beach, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Fort Walton Beach, surveyed 1938

On record in Fort Walton Beach

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 4 records

Population over time

2 figures

Fort Walton Beach grew from 19,507 to 20,922 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
201019,507
202020,922+1,415 (+7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 18 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

3 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Fort Walton Beach between 2001 and 2013, burning about 14 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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
Arson/incendiarism1
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Recreation and ceremony1

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
10 March 2013Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresFlorida Forest ServiceLOVEJOY (46)
21 November 2006Recreation and ceremony10 acresFlorida Forest Service430
14 November 2001Misuse of fire by a minor3.0 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Okaloosa 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 Fort Walton Beach: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
Beal MineSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Okaloosa County

Storms near this place

4 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Fort Walton Beach in 4 storm reports between 1993 and 1995: 3 tornado, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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
April 1993Thunderstorm WindFort Walton Beach$500,000High winds caused damage to a metal building at Fort Walton Yacht Club.
October 1995Tornado (F0)Fort Walton Beach$10,000A tornado briefly touched down as Opal moved ashore causing damage east of the center in the Fort Walton Beach area. Several trees and power lines were blown down.
October 1995Tornado (F0)Fort Walton Beach$4,000A tornado briefly touched down in Fort Walton Beach blowing down some trees and causing some minor roof damage to two homes.
October 1995Tornado (F0)Fort Walton Beach$3,000A tornado briefly touched down near the Fort Walton Beach medical center. Some trees were blown down.

Every storm recorded in Okaloosa 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
Cinco Bayou1.2 miles18
Mary Esther2.4 miles18
Ocean City2.4 miles18
Shalimar3.5 miles18
Wright3.6 miles18
Garnier3.7 miles18
Lake Lorraine3.8 miles18
Longwood4.1 miles18

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 Fort Walton BeachAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q984368The 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 282710. 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.