Punta Rassa, Florida
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1956 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Fort Myers census division. It lies in ZIP code area 33908. It lies near Fisherman Key. The Survey maps it on the Sanibel quadrangle. 1,620 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3 feet above sea level.
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 figuresPunta Rassa fell from 1,750 to 1,620 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 | 1,750 | |
| 2020 | 1,620 | -130 (-7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 13 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 Sanibel quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1959 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1972 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Sanibel quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
8 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Punta Rassa between 1993 and 2013, burning about 126 acres in total. 2 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 |
|---|---|
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 August 1998 | Natural | 50 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 16 June 2001 | Natural | 4.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 3 May 1998 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 7 April 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 3.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | PELICAN (36) |
| 7 April 1993 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 4 April 1997 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 4.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 11 April 2000 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 60 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 22 December 1993 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge | LOU'S FIRE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
10 since 2013Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Punta Rassa in 10 storm reports between 2013 and 2024: 4 tornado, 2 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning. The reports record 1 injury. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2017 | Tornado (EF0) | Punta Rassa | 1 hurt, $110,000 | Emergency management reported and broadcast media received video of a tornado that crossed the southern point of Pine Island. The tornado then became a waterspout as it moved east and into Fort Myers towards Lakes Regional Park. In Fort Myers, the tornado destroyed one mobile home, damaged trees, fences, and car ports, and lifted a metal dock out of the water at Lakes Regional Park. One person sustained minor injuries. |
| January 2022 | Tornado (EF2) | Punta Rassa | $10,000,000 | Iona/Fort Myers tornado. A waterspout first identified just northwest of Fort Myers Beach moved ashore as a tornado and pushed through the Iona area near Fort Myers producing EF-2 damage with peak winds estimated around 118 mph before dissipating near the Cape Coral bridge. Over 200 residences suffered damage across three separate mobile home communities (Point Breeze, Tropicana, and Century 21), with 45 destroyed, 90 sustaining major damage and another 92 with minor damage. 3 people suffered minor injuries. Damage estimates totaled around $10 million USD. |
| October 2024 | Tornado (EF0) | Punta Rassa | $50,000 | The first tornado of the day to impact Fort Myers, this supercell|went on to produce the Matlacha Tornado a few minutes later. As|the cell approached the coast, a brief tornado touched down in|the Jonathan Harbour community, causing damage to one home,|destroying a houseboat, and lifting a second pontoon boat onto a|dock. The tornado then continued into Punta Rassa Cove before|dissipating. Maximum estimated winds were 80 mph. |
| April 2019 | Lightning | Punta Rassa | $5,000 | Broadcast media reported lightning struck a house in Sanibel. The strike caused damage to the home, but did not start a fire. Time was estimated from radar. |
| May 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Punta Rassa | $3,000 | The Cape Coral Police Department reported several downed trees and power lines in Cape Coral and just south of the city. |
| September 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Punta Rassa | $2,000 | A broadcast media outlet relayed a report of wind damage to a pool cage and fence in Cape Coral. Time was estimated from radar. |
| June 2014 | Tornado (EF0) | Punta Rassa | $1,000 | A brief EF-0 tornado touched down in Lee County causing minor roof damage to a home. The tornado then moved into the water and continued as a waterspout for a few minutes before dissipating.||Damage to the home was consistent with EF-0 damage - namely a few roof shingles ripped off. Palm fronds still present on the palm trees. Winds estimated between 45-55 mph. |
| May 2022 | Hail | Punta Rassa | - | Photos obtained via social media indicate 1-inch diameter hail near Cape Coral. |
| May 2020 | Funnel Cloud | Punta Rassa | - | Broadcast media relayed a video of a funnel cloud in the Iona area of Fort Myers. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Punta Rassa | - | A broadcast media member's social media page had a report of penny sized hail in southwest Cape Coral. Time estimated from radar. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shell Point Village | 2.3 miles | 15 | |
| Truckland | 2.5 miles | 14 | |
| Sanibel | 2.7 miles | 13 | |
| Iona | 3.4 miles | 15 | |
| Saint James City | 3.6 miles | 13 | |
| Aspen Indian Creek Park | 3.8 miles | 14 | |
| Fort Myers Beach | 4.2 miles | 14 | |
| Harlem Heights | 4.9 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 Punta Rassa | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2049822 | 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 289383. 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.






