Matlacha, Florida
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1956 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Pine Island census division. It lies in ZIP code area 33993. It lies near Porpoise Point Island. The Survey maps it on the Matlacha quadrangle. 598 people lived here at the 2020 count.
Then and now
1956 to 1981The same ground, surveyed 25 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Population over time
2 figuresMatlacha fell from 677 to 598 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 677 | |
| 2020 | 598 | -79 (-12%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 12 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1956 USGS Charlotte Harbor quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Matlacha quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1959 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1972 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Charlotte Harbor quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
68 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 68 fires within 5 miles of Matlacha between 1992 and 2018, burning about 579 acres in total. 24 started naturally. 3 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 24 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 14 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9 |
| Debris and open burning | 5 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 5 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2013 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | CEMETERY (36) |
| 20 August 1993 | Natural | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 7 July 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 acres | Florida Forest Service | 2005-17-0389 |
| 6 July 2014 | Natural | 20 acres | Florida Forest Service | THREE BRUSH (36) |
| 6 July 2014 | Natural | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | SADDLEWOOD (36) |
| 6 July 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 20 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 30 July 2011 | Natural | 3.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | REHAB (36) |
| 27 July 2007 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | 36/TWO PILES BURNING FIRE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
6 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Matlacha in 6 storm reports between 2001 and 2024: 4 tornado, 2 flood. The reports record 3 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2016 | Tornado (EF2) | Matlacha | 3 hurt, $2,000,000 | NWS Storm Survey revealed EF-2 tornado damage in the western sections of Cape Coral. The tornado damaged 178 structures in total. One home was completely destroyed while 14 sustained major damage and another 163 sustained minor damage. The minor damage mainly consisted of roof damage and destroyed pool cages. Over 100 power poles were knocked down along the tornado's path along with many trees. The tornado injured three people while it was on the ground for about 7 minutes. |
| October 2024 | Tornado (EF1) | Matlacha | $50,000 | A waterspout moved over the Matlacha area, causing roof and siding damage to several homes along the track. The worst of the damage was to two homes, one where half of the roof was ripped off, and the other was a mobile home that had half the roof ripped off and walls collapse under it. The tornado moved back over the water and dissipated. Maximum estimated winds were 105 mph. |
| July 2021 | Flood | Matlacha | $15,000 | Law enforcement reported multiple road closures in Cape Coral due to flooding. |
| September 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Matlacha | $10,000 | A weak F0 tornado sporadically touched down along a narrow path and downed a few trees, large branches and power lines, from near Matlacha, north to near the Burnt Store Marina, over rural northwest Lee county, before it lifted a dissipated. |
| September 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Matlacha | $10,000 | A weak F0 tornado sporadically touched down along a narrow path, from near Matlacha, north to the Lee - Charlotte county line, near the Burnt Store Marina. The weak tornado continued to sporadically touch down as it moved north and crossed into Charlotte county. |
| June 2023 | Flood | Matlacha | - | Images relayed via broadcast media from social media show high water in multiple neighborhoods near Chiquita Blvd in Cape Coral. |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matlacha Isles | 0.6 miles | 12 | |
| Matlacha Shores | 1.3 miles | 12 | |
| Pine Island Center | 2.7 miles | 14 | |
| Flamingo Bay | 4.4 miles | 14 | |
| Pineland | 4.9 miles | 14 | |
| Caloosahatchee (historical) | 5.6 miles | 15 | |
| Bokeelia | 7.0 miles | 14 | |
| Cape Coral | 7.9 miles | 15 |
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 Matlacha | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2570474 | The 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 286522. 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.
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.






