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Welaka, Florida

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Crescent City census division. It lies in ZIP code area 32193. It stands on Ocklawaha River. The Survey maps it on the Welaka quadrangle. 714 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 26 feet above sea level.

Welaka within Putnam County

Then and now

1954 to 1994

The 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.

Topographic sheet of Welaka, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Welaka, surveyed 1954

Compare 1954 against another survey:

Population over time

2 figures

Welaka grew from 701 to 714 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
2010701
2020714+13 (+2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 11 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

150 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 150 fires within 5 miles of Welaka between 1993 and 2020, burning about 6,969 acres in total. 44 started naturally. 11 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
Natural44
Debris and open burning34
Missing data/not specified/undetermined33
Arson/incendiarism11
Power generation/transmission/distribution8
Railroad operations and maintenance6
Recreation and ceremony4
Equipment and vehicle use4
Other causes3
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Smoking1

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
30 September 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNational Forests in FloridaOKLAWAHA
23 September 1995Natural3.0 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
2 September 1998Naturalunder an acreNational Forests in FloridaRICHARD 42
19 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFlorida Forest ServiceLONGTREE ST.54)
17 September 2013Other causesunder an acreFlorida Forest ServiceMARLIN (54)
12 September 2010Natural1,097 acresNational Forests in FloridaFT GATES 22
12 August 2006Debris and open burningunder an acreFlorida Forest ServicePUTNAM/WELAKA PARK
9 July 2013Natural7.0 acresFlorida Forest ServiceCOMMANDER (54)

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Putnam County

Storms near this place

13 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Welaka in 13 storm reports between 1998 and 2026: 8 thunderstorm wind, 3 heavy rain, 1 lightning, 1 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
July 2002Thunderstorm WindWelaka$10,000Boat shed on Crescent Lake destroyed.
July 1998Thunderstorm WindWelaka$5,500Roof was blown off a bakery.
March 2026Thunderstorm WindWelaka$2,000A tree fell on powerlines along 301 south St. Time was estimated by radar.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindWelaka$200A tree was blown down onto a power line. The cost of damage was unknown but estimated for inclusion of the event in Storm Data.
September 2025Heavy RainWelaka-A personal weather station T Delancy (East | shore) - KFLFORTM369 measured 2.91 inches of | rain. About 2.6 inches of rain fell between | 550 PM and 650 PM.
September 2023Thunderstorm WindWelaka-Trees were blown down at the intersection of Elm Street and 11th Avenue.
July 2019Heavy RainWelaka-Daily storm total rainfall thus far for the day was 2.18 inches.
July 2019Heavy RainWelaka-Daily storm total rainfall at the gauge location was up to 2.29 inches.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindWelaka-The EM reported heavy rainfall caused a roof collapse, then strong thunderstorm winds blew off the roof.
August 2012Thunderstorm WindWelaka-Trees were blown down at the intersection of County Road 308 and County Road 309.
October 2003LightningWelaka-Lightning strike to a water main left the town of Welaka without water for 14 hours. Lightning grounded through the piping rupturing fifteen (15) feet of pipe. A boil water order was issued for the town. 580 customers were without water during the event.
February 2003HailWelaka-Fire chief reported quarter sized hail.
August 2004Thunderstorm WindWelaka-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Putnam 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
Seminole Grove2.4 miles17
Nashua2.7 miles17
Grand View Grove2.9 miles17
Johns Ferry3.3 miles11
Saratoga3.7 miles17
Sisco3.7 miles17
Norwalk3.9 miles11
Fruitland3.9 miles11

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 WelakaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2155841The 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 306568. 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.