Palm City, Florida
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1948 and the latest in 1988. It stands in the Stuart census division. It lies in ZIP code area 34990. It stands on Danforth Creek. The Survey maps it on the Palm City quadrangle. 25,883 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 7 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1948 to 1988The same ground, surveyed 40 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 figuresPalm City grew from 23,120 to 25,883 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 | 23,120 | |
| 2020 | 25,883 | +2,763 (+12%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 17 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.
- 1948 USGS Palm City quadrangle1:24000, 5 printings
- 1950 USGS Palm City quadrangle1:24000
- 1956 USGS Fort Pierce quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Fort Pierce quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Fort Pierce quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1981 USGS Fort Pierce quadrangle1:100000
- 1986 USGS Fort Pierce quadrangle1:100000
- 1988 USGS Fort Pierce quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
217 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 217 fires within 5 miles of Palm City between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,145 acres in total. 75 started naturally. 24 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 | 75 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 29 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 24 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 15 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 15 |
| Debris and open burning | 12 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 7 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 7 |
| Smoking | 5 |
| Fireworks | 2 |
| Other causes | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 September 2011 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | ST ANDREWS (43) |
| 5 September 1997 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 5 September 1995 | Natural | 5.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 4 September 2012 | Natural | 1.5 acres | Florida Forest Service | EVANS RD. (43) |
| 4 September 2001 | Natural | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 3 September 2015 | Natural | 2.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | INDIAN STREET BRIDGE (43) |
| 27 September 2010 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | (MA) MEADOWS (509) |
| 10 September 1992 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
20 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Palm City in 20 storm reports between 1995 and 2024: 8 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 3 funnel cloud, 2 lightning. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2017 | Lightning | Palm City | 3 hurt | A lightning strike associated with a mid day thunderstorm struck a tree in Phipps Park. The strike injured three people who were nearby. Two of the three people were hospitalized. While the extent of their injuries were unknown, all of them were conscious when paramedics arrived. |
| July 2013 | Lightning | Palm City | $500,000 | A home sustained damage estimated at $500,000 due to a fire which started after the home was struck by lightning. |
| March 1995 | Hail | Palm City | $5,000 | Severe thunderstorm winds blew down a carport in Palm City slightly damaging a car. Nickel-size hail was also reported. |
| April 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palm City | $3,000 | Thunderstorm winds blew the roof off a barn. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palm City | $1,000 | A picture relayed via Twitter showed several trees snapped in Palm City as an outer rainband associated with Tropical Storm Colin swept across the city and continued offshore. |
| January 2024 | Tornado (EF0) | Palm City | - | The tornado touched down to the south and west of I-95 before crossing the interstate around 4:43 PM EST. The system moved to the north-northeast into Palm City, where numerous trees were felled on properties between I-95 and SW Martin Hwy. The |circulation continued to the northeast in Stuart where numerous residents submitted videos of the tornado impacting portions of the Canopy Creek residential subdivision, though little in the way of damage was noted. Additional intermittent reports of downed |trees were reported along the path as it moved across Florida's Turnpike and into Stuart. ||The circulation eventually went on to produce a waterspout over the St. Lucie River that then pushed onshore and into the North River Shores subdivision before lifting and dissipating. The tornado produced minor damage here, including a few fallen trees |near the intersection of NW Pine Lake Dr and NW Fork Rd. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Palm City | - | Public report of quarter size hail near Palm City. |
| September 2022 | Flood | Palm City | - | Heavy rain embedded within the outer bands ahead of Hurricane Ian produced widespread rainfall totals of 4 to 8 inches across Martin County, resulting in sporadic reports of street, urban, and poor drainage flooding. Several roadways were impacted by significant levels of standing water and many retention ponds reached capacity or overflowed. A 34-year-old man was discovered drowned in about 10 inches of water along the side of a road in Stuart where he was last known to be collecting work debris in preparation for the hurricane (indirect).||Emergency management officials indicated minimal damage to residential and business structures. |
| April 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palm City | - | A member of the public reported a measured peak wind gust of 66 mph, quarter-sized hail, and damage to a few carports at Southwest Hideaway Place in Stuart. |
| April 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palm City | - | Martin County Emergency Management reported a large tree fell onto a car in Palm City. |
| May 2016 | Funnel Cloud | Palm City | - | A social media post revealed that a funnel cloud was observed in Palm City. A photo confirmed the funnel cloud. |
| September 2013 | Funnel Cloud | Palm City | - | A Martin County Sheriffs Deputy reported a funnel cloud near Interstate 95 and Martin Highway. |
| May 2012 | Hail | Palm City | - | SKYWARN Spotter observed penny-sized hail for 10 minutes near the intersection of Kanner Hwy and US-1 in Stuart. |
| May 2012 | Hail | Palm City | - | Spotter reported quarter-sized hail which lasted for about 15 minutes southwest of Palm City. |
| May 2012 | Hail | Palm City | - | SKYWARN Spotter reported quarter-sized hail lasting 10 minutes in Palm City. |
| May 2012 | Funnel Cloud | Palm City | - | A Saint Lucie County Public Safety Officer observed a funnel cloud about 7 miles south of their location in Port Saint Lucie. |
| February 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Palm City | - | A utility shed was heavily damaged at 4704 SW 72nd Drive in Palm City. Several other reports were received from the are of minor wind damage to structures, as well as small objects blown about and tree branches downed. |
| May 2009 | Hail | Palm City | - | A mobile ham radio operator reported hail up to quarter size on Bridge Road, one to two miles west of State Road 76. |
| April 2000 | Hail | Palm City | - | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Hail | Palm City | - | no account filed |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stuart | 2.2 miles | 17 | |
| Lighthouse Point | 2.4 miles | 17 | |
| Golden Gate | 2.7 miles | 16 | |
| Snug Harbor | 3.4 miles | 16 | |
| North River Shores | 3.4 miles | 17 | |
| Coral Gardens | 3.5 miles | 16 | |
| Port Salerno | 3.8 miles | 16 | |
| Rio | 3.8 miles | 16 |
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 Palm City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2443698 | 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 288396. 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.







