Placitas, New Mexico
20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1892 and the latest in 2006. It stands in the Rio Rancho census division. It lies in ZIP code area 87043. It stands on Arroyo Colorado. The Survey maps it on the Placitas quadrangle. 5,041 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 5,955 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresPlacitas grew from 4,977 to 5,041 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 | 4,977 | |
| 2020 | 5,041 | +64 (+1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 20 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.
- 1892 USGS San Pedro quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1954 USGS Placitas quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1954 USGS San Felipe Pueblo quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Albuquerque quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Albuquerque quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Albuquerque quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1978 USGS Albuquerque quadrangle1:100000
- 1983 USGS Albuquerque quadrangle1:250000
- 1990 USGS Placitas quadrangle1:24000
- 2006 USGS Placitas quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
58 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 58 fires within 5 miles of Placitas between 1992 and 2020, burning about 102 acres in total. 8 started naturally. 2 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 20 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 |
| Debris and open burning | 9 |
| Natural | 8 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Other causes | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 1992 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Cibola National Forest | not named |
| 17 September 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | JAMES |
| 1 September 2005 | Natural | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | ORLANDO |
| 5 August 2005 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | PLACITAS |
| 3 August 2011 | Natural | under an acre | Southern Pueblos Agency | PIEDRA LISA |
| 20 August 2001 | Natural | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | HUERTAS |
| 14 August 1996 | Natural | 20 acres | Cibola National Forest | PLACITAS |
| 6 July 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Cibola National Forest | SANDIA CF 028 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 22 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 22 workings within 5 miles of Placitas: 7 prospects, 7 past producers, 4 occurrences, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Silver, Lead, Copper, Barium-Barite, Lead. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buckeye Claim | Lead, Silver, Copper | Prospect | ||
| Crummy Number One Prospect | Copper, Lead, Fluorine-Fluorite | Prospect | ||
| Donnell Prospect | Gold, Silver, Copper | Occurrence | ||
| Landsend Prospect | Fluorine-Fluorite, Barium-Barite | Occurrence | 1955 | |
| Manual Ruiz | Clay | Producer | Sedimentary | |
| San Jose Group | Copper, Lead, Silver | Prospect | ||
| La Luz | Gold, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Placitas | Gold, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Sloan Mine | Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Landsend Prospect | Barium-Barite, Lead, Fluorine-Fluorite | Prospect |
Storms near this place
9 since 2005Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Placitas in 9 storm reports between 2005 and 2022: 5 flash flood, 2 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind. 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 2006 | Flash Flood | Placitas | $100,000 | no account filed |
| July 2021 | Flash Flood | Placitas | $35,000 | An estimated 2.5 to 3.5 inches of heavy rainfall in under an hour caused flash flooding in Placitas. Several roads and drainage ditches in the Placitas area were flooded with mud and debris also covering roadways. Damages are estimated. |
| August 2022 | Flash Flood | Placitas | $20,000 | Heavy rain near Golden caused flash flooding on Puertocito Road, forcing the closure of the roadway with debris and large boulders rendering it unpassable. Time of the report is estimated based on radar. Damages are estimated. |
| October 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Placitas | $1,000 | Tree limbs greater than 2 inches in diameter were blown down. |
| August 2016 | Flash Flood | Placitas | - | High water, mud, rocks, and debris flowing across highway 165 from nearby dirt roads. |
| August 2016 | Flash Flood | Placitas | - | Las Huertas Creek flooded out of it's banks and up to back door of one home. No damage. Sand bags were requested. |
| October 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Placitas | - | A passing virga shower produced a severe wind gust to 66 mph at an APRS site near Placitas. |
| October 2010 | Hail | Placitas | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Placitas | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Pastores | 0.6 miles | 20 | |
| Village de las Huertas | 0.9 miles | 20 | |
| Las Huertas | 1.0 miles | 20 | |
| Montezuma (historical) | 1.1 miles | 20 | |
| The Overlook | 1.3 miles | 20 | |
| Tecolote | 1.3 miles | 20 | |
| Puesta Del Sol | 1.5 miles | 20 | |
| Ranchos des Placitas | 2.1 miles | 20 |
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 Placitas | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1836445 | 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 915877. 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.









