BlockBefore

Highland Beach, Florida

17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1950 and the latest in 1987. It stands in the Boca Raton census division. It lies in ZIP code area 33487. The Survey maps it on the Delray Beach quadrangle. 4,295 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 13 feet above sea level.

Highland Beach within Palm Beach County

Then and now

1950 to 1987

The same ground, surveyed 37 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Highland Beach, surveyed 1987
Topographic sheet of Highland Beach, surveyed 1950

Compare 1950 against another survey:

Population over time

2 figures

Highland Beach grew from 3,539 to 4,295 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
20103,539
20204,295+756 (+21%)

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

3 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Highland Beach between 2005 and 2010, burning about 33 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/undetermined2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
7 April 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined8.0 acresFlorida Forest ServiceBOCA COMMAND
6 April 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined20 acresFlorida Forest ServiceLYNN UNIVERSITY FIRE
30 April 2007Power generation/transmission/distribution5.0 acresFlorida Forest ServiceGLADES COMMAND

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Palm Beach 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 Highland Beach: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Peanut Island Limestone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Palm Beach County

Storms near this place

4 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Highland Beach in 4 storm reports between 1997 and 2009: 2 waterspout, 1 thunderstorm wind, 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 2009Thunderstorm WindHighland Beach$2,000Strong winds blew down a queen palm and broke off several Australian Pine branches along South County Road just south of the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach.
July 2009LightningHighland Beach$1,000Palm Beach Fire Rescue responded to a call of a lightning strike that hit an unoccupied residence and blew a 5 foot hole into the chimney. There was no fire or injury.
June 2001WaterspoutHighland Beach-Five waterspouts were sighted in the Atlantic.
July 1997WaterspoutHighland Beach-pilot reported...storm spotter calls.

Every storm recorded in Palm Beach 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
Caribbean Key0.4 miles17
Bel Marra0.6 miles17
Boca Harbour1.0 miles17
Lake Rogers Isle1.3 miles17
Yamato1.5 miles17
Blue Inlet1.5 miles17
Harbor East1.7 miles17
Tropic Isle2.5 miles17

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 Highland BeachAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1992688The 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 283999. 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.