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Merritt Island, Florida

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1949 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the Space Center census division. It lies in ZIP code area 32780. It stands on Merritt Island. The Survey maps it on the Orsino quadrangle. 34,518 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3 feet above sea level.

Merritt Island within Brevard County

Then and now

1949 to 1979

The same ground, surveyed 30 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Merritt Island, surveyed 1979
Topographic sheet of Merritt Island, surveyed 1949

On record in Merritt Island

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Merritt Island fell from 34,743 to 34,518 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
201034,743
202034,518-225 (-1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 12 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

163 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 163 fires within 5 miles of Merritt Island between 1992 and 2020, burning about 18,773 acres in total. 138 started naturally. 5 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
Natural138
Equipment and vehicle use9
Arson/incendiarism5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Debris and open burning3
Recreation and ceremony2
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Smoking1
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
6 September 2010Natural5.0 acresMerritt Island National Wildlife RefugeBULLFROG
6 September 2000Naturalunder an acreMerritt Island National Wildlife RefugeGROUP 4
5 September 2010Naturalunder an acreMerritt Island National Wildlife RefugeLONE TREE
5 September 2010Naturalunder an acreMerritt Island National Wildlife RefugeLONE TREE II
5 September 2000Naturalunder an acreMerritt Island National Wildlife RefugeB AVENUE
30 September 2011Naturalunder an acreMerritt Island National Wildlife RefugeTWO PALMS
3 September 1997Naturalunder an acreMerritt Island National Wildlife RefugeIND6STEAVE
3 September 1997Naturalunder an acreMerritt Island National Wildlife RefugeIND5STEAVE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Brevard 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 Merritt Island: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Limestone, General. 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
F&W Mines - Hwy 520 MineLimestone, GeneralProducerLimestone

Every working recorded in Brevard County

Storms near this place

1 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Merritt Island in 1 storm report in 1994: 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
June 1994Thunderstorm WindMerritt Island$5,000Thunderstorm winds moving from the east off of the Banana River blew down power lines and poles and destroyed two boat dock sheds.

Every storm recorded in Brevard 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
Orsino0.9 miles12
Courtenay6.0 miles13
Bellwood6.4 miles14
Delespine6.6 miles14
Indian River City6.9 miles14
Audubon7.1 miles13
Frontenac7.2 miles14
Wilson7.3 miles14

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 Merritt IslandAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q991010The 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 294625. 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.