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Ridge Wood Heights, Florida

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1944 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Sarasota census division. It lies in ZIP code area 34231. The Survey maps it on the Sarasota quadrangle. 5,064 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 23 feet above sea level.

Ridge Wood Heights within Sarasota County

Then and now

1944 to 1994

The same ground, surveyed 50 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Ridge Wood Heights, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Ridge Wood Heights, surveyed 1944

Compare 1944 against another survey:

On record in Ridge Wood Heights

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 within a mile 1 record

The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.

Population over time

2 figures

Ridge Wood Heights grew from 4,795 to 5,064 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
20104,795
20205,064+269 (+6%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 14 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

30 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 30 fires within 5 miles of Ridge Wood Heights between 1992 and 2019, burning about 189 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
Misuse of fire by a minor8
Equipment and vehicle use7
Recreation and ceremony4
Railroad operations and maintenance4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Natural2
Debris and open burning1
Arson/incendiarism1

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
10 August 2006Arson/incendiarismunder an acreFlorida Forest Service58-PROCTOR FIRE-0568
19 July 1993Misuse of fire by a minor25 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
4 June 2000Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreFlorida Forest Servicenot named
11 June 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFlorida Forest ServiceSAWYER RD. (58)
11 June 1998Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreFlorida Forest Servicenot named
1 June 1994Natural15 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
28 May 2001Natural3.0 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
20 April 2005Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreFlorida Forest Service15-211 MCINTOSH MIDDLE FIRE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Sarasota 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 Ridge Wood Heights: 1 plant. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Phosphorus-Phosphates. 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
Piney Point Nu-GulfPhosphorus-PhosphatesPlant

Every working recorded in Sarasota County

Storms near this place

3 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ridge Wood Heights in 3 storm reports between 2008 and 2009: 1 hail, 1 lightning, 1 thunderstorm wind. The reports record 2 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
January 2009Thunderstorm WindRidge Wood Heights1 hurt, $1,000Several small tree limbs snapped, shopping carts were turned over and the awning of a grocery store was damaged in Sarasota. A woman pushing a shopping cart and holding an umbrella was knocked down while walking to her car. She was transported to the hospital with minor injuries.
June 2008LightningRidge Wood Heights1 hurtA 28 year old man was struck and injured by lightning while wade fishing in the Gulf off of Siesta Key.
August 2008HailRidge Wood Heights-Penny to quarter size hail was reported along Bee Ridge Road from Beneva Road east to Interstate 75.

Every storm recorded in Sarasota 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
South Gate Ridge0.9 miles13
South Sarasota1.0 miles14
Sunnyland1.1 miles13
South Trail1.2 miles14
Southgate1.4 miles14
Bee Ridge1.7 miles13
Gulf Gate Estates1.9 miles14
Sarasota Heights2.0 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 Ridge Wood HeightsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1940377The 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 1867196. 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.