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Taft, Florida

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the Orlando census division. It lies in ZIP code area 32824. The Survey maps it on the Pine Castle quadrangle. 2,221 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 95 feet above sea level.

Taft within Orange County

Then and now

1953 to 1979

The same ground, surveyed 26 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Taft, surveyed 1979
Topographic sheet of Taft, surveyed 1953

Compare 1953 against another survey:

Population over time

2 figures

Taft grew from 2,205 to 2,221 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
20102,205
20202,221+16 (+1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 13 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

99 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 99 fires within 5 miles of Taft between 1992 and 2020, burning about 599 acres in total. 15 started naturally. 17 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
Railroad operations and maintenance28
Arson/incendiarism17
Natural15
Missing data/not specified/undetermined12
Misuse of fire by a minor11
Equipment and vehicle use8
Smoking3
Debris and open burning2
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Recreation and ceremony1

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 1997Misuse of fire by a minor1.0 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
26 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.8 acresFlorida Forest ServicePLAYGROUND (4)
7 August 1993Railroad operations and maintenance1.0 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
5 August 1998Natural7.0 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
29 August 2005Equipment and vehicle use3.0 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
20 August 1998Natural20 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
18 August 2000Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreFlorida Forest Servicenot named
18 August 2000Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreFlorida Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Orange County

Storms near this place

4 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Taft in 4 storm reports between 1993 and 2018: 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail. 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 2018HailTaft-A member of the public relayed a photo via social media showing nickel-sized hail in Taft, west of the Orlando International Airport.
May 1999Thunderstorm WindTaft-Trees and power lines were blown down in Taft. Half Dollar size hail was also reported.
March 1993Thunderstorm WindTaft-Thunderstorm gusts blew down power lines.
May 1999HailTaft-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Orange 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
Belle Isle2.0 miles13
Sky Lake2.4 miles12
Morningside Park2.4 miles12
Nela Isle Annex (historical)2.6 miles13
South Lake Conway Villa2.6 miles13
Canal Addition (historical)2.6 miles13
Lake Conway Park (historical)2.7 miles13
Southchase2.7 miles12

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 TaftAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2586378The 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 291991. 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.