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Alamogordo, New Mexico

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1950 and the latest in 2004. It stands in the Alamogordo census division. It lies in ZIP code area 88310. The Survey maps it on the Alamogordo North quadrangle. 30,898 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,341 feet above sea level.

Research this city

Alamogordo within Otero County

On record in Alamogordo

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 7 records

Surveyed buildings and structures 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Alamogordo grew from 30,403 to 30,898 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
201030,403
202030,898+495 (+2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 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.

Photographs

1 photograph,

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Town of La Luz, La Luz Canyon Creek, Alamogordo, Otero County, NM
Town of La Luz, La Luz Canyon Creek, Alamogordo, Otero County, NM
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress

Fires near this place

28 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 28 fires within 5 miles of Alamogordo between 1993 and 2013, burning about 211 acres in total. 6 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined14
Natural6
Recreation and ceremony3
Equipment and vehicle use1
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Smoking1
Fireworks1
Other causes1

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
1 September 2009Naturalunder an acreLincoln National ForestALAMO
8 July 1994Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNew Mexico State Forestry DivisionDELBERT
5 July 1994Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNew Mexico State Forestry DivisionFLORIDA
4 July 1995Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNew Mexico State Forestry DivisionRED
4 July 1995Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNew Mexico State Forestry DivisionARROYO
4 July 1995Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNew Mexico State Forestry DivisionAMY
31 July 2011Natural75 acresLincoln National ForestALAMO
3 July 1995Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNew Mexico State Forestry DivisionSCENIC

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Otero County

Mines and quarries near this place

8 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Alamogordo: 4 unknowns, 2 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Marble, Dimension, Copper. 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
Almora Marble QuarryMarble, DimensionUnknown
Holmes MineCopperUnknown
Alamo No2 PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Downs PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
La Luz PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducerSedimentary
Materials PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Materials PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Ortega PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Otero County

Storms near this place

26 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alamogordo in 26 storm reports between 1997 and 2022: 9 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 6 flash flood, 2 heavy rain. 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 2006Flash FloodAlamogordo$1,300,000no account filed
August 2006Flash FloodAlamogordo$600,000Heavy rainfall along the western slopes of the southern Sacramento Mountains led to excessive runoff and major flooding in Alamogordo and Boles Acres. Numerous roads throughout the area were closed, covered with water and debris. There were also some rescues of people trapped in their homes.
July 2002Thunderstorm WindAlamogordo$25,000Thunderstorm outflow blew down billboards, power lines and trees, and left at least one house without a roof.
July 2014Thunderstorm WindAlamogordo$20,000Reports of trees down across the county from winds. Car windows were broken and a roof was blown off a trailer home in Alamogordo. A transformer fell into a tree and the tree then fell into a house. About 2000 people in the area were without power for several hours. Some locally dense blowing dust was also reported with the storm.
July 2001Flash FloodAlamogordo$10,000A cluster of thunderstorms dropped an estimated 3 inches of rain on the western Sacramento Mountains between Alamogordo and Cloudcroft. Mudslides resulted and caused the closure of US Highway 82 for at least two hours.
May 2008HailAlamogordo$10,000no account filed
May 2008HailAlamogordo$5,000no account filed
September 2004Thunderstorm WindAlamogordo$2,000no account filed
June 2020Thunderstorm WindAlamogordo$1,000Power line blown down in Alamogordo.
July 2007Thunderstorm WindAlamogordo$1,000Strong thunderstorm winds blew down a few trees in Alamogordo.
August 2022Heavy RainAlamogordo-A picture from Alamogordo showed 2.75 inches of rain fallen during the day.
August 2021Heavy RainAlamogordo-Approximately 3.5 inches of rain fell in one hour in Alamogordo.
July 2019Thunderstorm WindAlamogordo-A tree fell on top of the public library.
July 2012Funnel CloudAlamogordo-A weather spotter from Holloman AFB reported a small funnel cloud in association with a strong thunderstorm. The cloud base was rather low and described as below the mountain tops.
August 2006Flash FloodAlamogordo-Significant street flooding and arroyo flooding occurred in and around Alamogordo.
July 2003HailAlamogordo-Nickel size hail covered the ground at a fire station in north Alamogordo.
July 1999Flash FloodAlamogordo-Heavy rains from strong thunderstorms produced between one and two inches of rain in an hour. This resulted in extensive urban and arroyo flooding across the city of Alamogordo. Water reached near the first floor of homes in some areas. There were numerous reports of stranded motorists and stalled vehicles. There were no injuries or deaths.
July 1999Flash FloodAlamogordo-A strong thunderstorm dropped between one and three inches of rain in the Alamogordo area. This resulted in widespread urban and arroyo flooding. The flooding forced the state police to close portions of U.S. route 70 near. Many streets were flooded in Alamogordo with numerous reports of stalled automobiles. Water was deep enough in some intersections to cause vehicles to float. There were no injuries or deaths.
August 1998Thunderstorm WindAlamogordo-A line of strong thunderstorms accompanied by very strong winds moved through the Alamogordo area during the late afternoon and early evening hours. Wind gusts of 112 mph were reported from at least one automated sensor site on the White Sands Missile Range and winds of at least 75 mph were reported at Holloman AFB before the station's wind equipment broke. Considerable tree damage was noted around the area however damage to structures was limited. The worst damage was found in the Alamogordo subdivision of Bolles Acres. The back porch/deck of a residence was destroyed, as was a 20 foot long trailer , and a small barn constructed of sheet metal on a 2X4 frame. Debris from the barn was carried about 100 yds and struck a site-built stucco home with enough force to penetrate an exposed wall and protrude into the inside of the structure.
April 2017HailAlamogordo-no account filed
June 2006Thunderstorm WindAlamogordo-no account filed
October 2006HailAlamogordo-no account filed
September 2004HailAlamogordo-no account filed
September 2004HailAlamogordo-no account filed
July 2003HailAlamogordo-no account filed
July 1997HailAlamogordo-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Otero County

Newspapers printed here

2,599 digitised pages

2 papers published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 490 issues, 2,599 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.

NewspaperPublished
Alamogordo News-Advertiser1912 to 1914
The Alamogordo News1899 to 1912

What the paper printed

12,386 words

Front pages of the local paper, read from the Library of Congress scans: 6 issues spread across its run from 1900 to 1913, 12,386 words in total. Each is reproduced on its own page, exactly as the recogniser returned it.

These pages read less well than anything else here, and the number is worth stating: about three words in four come through cleanly, against nine in ten for the building records. An 1896 broadsheet sets eight-point type in seven columns on microfilm, which is the hardest thing in this archive to read by machine. We tested our own recognisers against the Library's and they were not better, so the Library's text is what appears, with the wholly unreadable columns removed. Read it as a guide to what the paper covered, and follow the link to the scan before quoting anything.

IssuePaper Length
1912-12-07Alamogordo News-Advertiser1,321 words
1912-12-21Alamogordo News-Advertiser1,146 words
1912-12-28Alamogordo News-Advertiser3,540 words
1913-06-13Alamogordo News-Advertiser3,429 words
1900-01-04The Alamogordo News1,396 words
1912-11-28The Alamogordo News1,554 words

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
Omlee4.4 miles13
La Luz5.5 miles12
Kearney5.9 miles12
Boles Acres6.5 miles13
High Rolls7.5 miles11
Monista (historical)7.5 miles10
Alamorosa7.5 miles9
Mountain Park8.0 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 AlamogordoAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q467617The 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 903054. 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.