Valparaiso, Florida
19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1934 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Niceville-Valparaiso census division. It lies in ZIP code area 32580. It stands on Toms Creek. The Survey maps it on the Valparaiso quadrangle. 4,752 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 46 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1934 to 1994The same ground, surveyed 60 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1934 against another survey:
Population over time
2 figuresValparaiso fell from 5,036 to 4,752 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 | 5,036 | |
| 2020 | 4,752 | -284 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 19 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.
- 1934 USGS Holt quadrangle1:48000
- 1937 USGS Holt quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS Holt quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Pensacola quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1959 USGS Pensacola quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Pensacola quadrangle1:250000
- 1970 USGS Valparaiso quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1978 USGS Crestview quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1994 USGS Valparaiso quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
4 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Valparaiso between 1999 and 2006, burning about 1,102 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
| Natural | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 July 2006 | Fireworks | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | 830 |
| 9 June 2002 | Natural | 1,100 acres | Eglin Air Force Base | EGLIN COMPLEX |
| 16 October 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 1.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 30 January 1999 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Valparaiso: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Niceville Mine | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
14 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Valparaiso in 14 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 8 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 2 lightning, 2 hail. The reports record 6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2006 | Lightning | Valparaiso | 6 hurt | A group of recruits were attending Army Ranger Camp and were laying on the ground as a thunderstorm approached them. Evidently, lightning hit a nearby tree and ran through the root system of the tree. Six of the rangers were injured by the strike and were transported to a local hospital and later released. None of them suffered any serious injuries. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Valparaiso | $12,000 | High winds from a thunderstorm blew down several trees and power lines in the Valparaiso area. |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Valparaiso | $10,000 | Power lines were reported downed by thunderstorm winds. |
| August 2005 | Tornado (F0) | Valparaiso | $5,000 | A weak tornado developed along the outer bands of hurricane Katrina. The weak tornado blew down several trees and power lines near Valpariaso. |
| August 1998 | Lightning | Valparaiso | $2,000 | Lightning struck the Okaloosa county communications center, knocking it off the air for several minutes. |
| October 1995 | Tornado (F0) | Valparaiso | $2,000 | A tornado briefly touched down near Valparaiso blowing some trees down. |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Valparaiso | - | Measured at the Okaloosa County EOC. |
| November 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Valparaiso | - | High winds downed a tree on a house. |
| June 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Valparaiso | - | Measured by ASOS at Duke Field on Eglin. |
| January 2026 | Thunderstorm Wind | Valparaiso | - | no account filed |
| December 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Valparaiso | - | no account filed |
| July 2009 | Hail | Valparaiso | - | no account filed |
| April 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Valparaiso | - | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Hail | Valparaiso | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niceville | 1.2 miles | 20 | |
| Postil | 2.3 miles | 18 | |
| Dana Point | 2.4 miles | 18 | |
| Eglin Village | 3.7 miles | 18 | |
| Seminole | 5.3 miles | 18 | |
| Longwood | 5.6 miles | 18 | |
| Lake Lorraine | 5.7 miles | 18 | |
| Shalimar | 5.9 miles | 18 |
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 Valparaiso | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q614148 | 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 305048. 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.








