El Cerro, New Mexico
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1952 and the latest in 1991. It stands in the Los Lunas census division. It lies in ZIP code area 87031. It stands on La Canada de la Loma de Arena. The Survey maps it on the Tome quadrangle. 2,946 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,842 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresEl Cerro fell from 2,953 to 2,946 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 | 2,953 | |
| 2020 | 2,946 | -7 (-0%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 10 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.
- 1952 USGS Tome quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1954 USGS Socorro quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Socorro quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Socorro quadrangle1:250000
- 1979 USGS Belen quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1991 USGS Tome quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
423 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 423 fires within 5 miles of El Cerro between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,482 acres in total. 7 started naturally. 10 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 231 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 124 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 20 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 10 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 8 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 8 |
| Natural | 7 |
| Smoking | 7 |
| Other causes | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2011 | Natural | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | ANIMAL |
| 28 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | SKUNK FIRE |
| 27 September 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.8 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | AFS FIRE |
| 21 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Bernalillo District | HACKSAW FIRE |
| 19 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Bernalillo District | 20-60460253X |
| 19 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | GROOT FIRE |
| 16 September 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4.1 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | MANZANO S |
| 14 September 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | ALLSUPS |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of El Cerro: 4 unknowns. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Materials Pit 56-10-S | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Materials Pit 57-133-S | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unnamed Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unnamed Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown |
Storms near this place
3 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names El Cerro in 3 storm reports between 2002 and 2020: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood. 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | El Cerro | $3,000 | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | El Cerro | - | A weather station near Tome-Adelino recorded a 59 mph wind gust as a severe thunderstorm continued to track south through the Rio Grande Valley. |
| July 2013 | Flood | El Cerro | - | Residents were reported to be stranded in the Meadow Lake and El Cerro Mission areas east of Los Lunas due to flooding. Roads were completely covered with water and pumps were required for water removal. Some residents reported water several feet deep. Much of the impacted area has non-paved roads and runoff originated from heavy rains over the Manzano Mountains immediately to the east. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pasitos del Cielo | 1.2 miles | 10 | |
| La Ladera | 1.2 miles | 10 | |
| Rio del Oro | 1.3 miles | 10 | |
| Adelino | 1.3 miles | 10 | |
| Tome | 1.3 miles | 10 | |
| Las Maravillas | 2.4 miles | 10 | |
| Los Chavez | 2.5 miles | 10 | |
| Azul | 3.4 miles | 10 |
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 El Cerro | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5821351 | 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 899621. 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.





