BlockBefore

Whitefish, Montana

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1943 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Whitefish census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59937. It stands on Cow Creek. The Survey maps it on the Whitefish quadrangle. 7,751 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,028 feet above sea level.

Whitefish within Flathead County

On record in Whitefish

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 4 records

Population over time

2 figures

Whitefish grew from 6,357 to 7,751 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
20106,357
20207,751+1,394 (+22%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 12 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

138 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 138 fires within 5 miles of Whitefish between 1992 and 2020, burning about 135 acres in total. 14 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined52
Debris and open burning31
Natural14
Recreation and ceremony14
Equipment and vehicle use6
Power generation/transmission/distribution5
Smoking4
Fireworks4
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Railroad operations and maintenance3
Other causes1
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
9 September 2006Smokingunder an acreNorthwestern Land Officenot named
7 September 2014Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreNorthwestern Land OfficeLION MTN
7 September 2011Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreNorthwestern Land OfficeWOODS LAKE
7 September 1992Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNorthwestern Land OfficeHIDEAWAY
6 September 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNorthwestern Land Officenot named
4 September 2010Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreNorthwestern Land OfficeHIDDEN VALLEY
4 September 2001Arson/incendiarismunder an acreNorthwestern Land Officenot named
3 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNorthwestern Land OfficeFISH HOUSE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Flathead County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Whitefish: 1 producer, 1 occurrence. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay. 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
Hamilton PitStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Unnamed Kaolinitic ClayClayOccurrence

Every working recorded in Flathead County

Storms near this place

11 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Whitefish in 11 storm reports between 1996 and 2014: 5 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 lightning. 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 2005Thunderstorm WindWhitefish$12,000no account filed
May 2014Funnel CloudWhitefish-An official observer at the Glacier Park International Airport observed a funnel cloud approximately 8 miles to the northwest. They reported that it didn't seem to reach the ground and only lasted for a minute. Radar and lightning data confirmed that the funnel cloud was attached to a cumulonimbus cloud(thunderstorm). Due to strong deep layer southwest wind shear ranging between 40 and 45 knots and with the relative location of the precipitation shaft to the base of the storm, the thunderstorm could have been supercellular. The Glacier National Park ASOS observed high relative humidities and south to south-southeast winds between 13 and 17 knots which added low-level wind shear. The appearance of the thunderstorm cloud base was relatively low which is another favorable atmospheric condition for funnel cloud development. Thanks to James LaDue from the NWS Warning Decision Training Branch for his added contribution to this report.
July 2012HailWhitefish-Hail 1 inch in diameter was measured by a trained spotter.
July 2011Heavy RainWhitefish-A trained spotter reported 0.40 inches of rain in less than 15 minutes.
July 2011HailWhitefish-A trained spotter measured 1.00 inch hail in East Whitefish.
May 2008LightningWhitefish-Two firefighters, a 25 year old woman and a 29 year old man, members of the Flahtead National Forest were struck by lightning while finishing up a mop up of a prescribed burn west of Whitefish, MT and heading back to their vehicles. The lightning directly hit two nearby trees and injuried the firefighters. The two firefighters were taken to the hospital and listed as in stable condition.
September 2000Tornado (F0)Whitefish-Whitefish attorney followed and photographed a tornado that formed near Big Mountain, traveled near Whitefish Lake and then dissipated over Iron Horse brewery. No damage reported.
August 2010HailWhitefish-no account filed
April 2000Thunderstorm WindWhitefish-no account filed
July 1999HailWhitefish-no account filed
July 1996HailWhitefish-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Flathead 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
Happy Haven0.3 miles12
Ramsey (historical)1.0 miles12
Vista4.7 miles12
Round Prairie5.0 miles12
Halfmoon5.4 miles12
Lazy Day Court7.2 miles11
Big Sky Colonial Manor7.9 miles11
La Salle8.4 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 WhitefishAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q26446The 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 793219. 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.