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Playas, New Mexico

17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1918 and the latest in 1983. It stands in the South Hidalgo census division. It lies in ZIP code area 88009. The Survey maps it on the Playas Lake North quadrangle. 25 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,495 feet above sea level.

Playas within Hidalgo County

Population over time

2 figures

Playas fell from 74 to 25 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
201074
202025-49 (-66%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 17 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

3 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Playas between 1992 and 1994, burning about 8 acres in total. None 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/undetermined3

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
6 June 1992Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.5 acresNew Mexico State Forestry DivisionBOX
16 June 1992Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.5 acresNew Mexico State Forestry DivisionLAKEBED
27 February 1994Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresNew Mexico State Forestry DivisionPLAYAS

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hidalgo County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Playas: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Silver, Lead, Arsenic, Zinc. 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
Miss Pickle TunnelSilver, Lead, Arsenic, ZincPast Producer

Every working recorded in Hidalgo County

Storms near this place

2 since 2011

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Playas in 2 storm reports between 2011 and 2024: 1 hail, 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2024Thunderstorm WindPlayas-The Hachita Valley RAWS station recorded a peak gust of 72 mph.
September 2011HailPlayas-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hidalgo 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
White Place5.4 miles17
Windmill6.4 miles17
Antelope10.0 miles17
Animas14.7 miles12
Jim Robinson17.5 miles12
Spears19.8 miles14
Eakins20.5 miles14
Bene Dunagan20.8 miles14

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 PlayasAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3472351The 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 896884. 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.