Brightwaters, New York
33 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1901 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Islip town. It lies in ZIP code area 11718. It stands on Lawrence Creek. The Survey maps it on the Bay Shore West quadrangle. 3,181 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 23 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1901 to 1984The same ground, surveyed 83 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Population over time
2 figuresBrightwaters grew from 3,103 to 3,181 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 | 3,103 | |
| 2020 | 3,181 | +78 (+3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
15 surveys from 33 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.
- 1901 USGS Babylon quadrangle1:62500
- 1903 USGS Babylon quadrangle1:62500, 8 printings
- 1904 USGS Islip quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1919 USGS Babylon quadrangle1:62500
- 1941 USGS Bay Shore West quadrangle1:24000
- 1942 USGS Islip quadrangle1:125000
- 1949 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Bay Shore West quadrangle1:24000
- 1954 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1969 USGS Bay Shore West quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1969 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Long Island West quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
1,090 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1,090 fires within 5 miles of Brightwaters between 1992 and 2020, burning about 831 acres in total. 120 started naturally. 288 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 593 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 288 |
| Natural | 120 |
| Debris and open burning | 21 |
| Smoking | 21 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 17 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 17 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 8 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 3.1 acres | Fire Department of New York | N/A |
| 9 September 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | N/A |
| 9 September 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | N/A |
| 9 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | not named |
| 9 September 2007 | Natural | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | not named |
| 8 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.9 acres | Fire Department of New York | N/A |
| 8 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | not named |
| 8 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Brightwaters: 1 past producer. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bay Shore Plant | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary |
Storms near this place
1 since 2019Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Brightwaters in 1 storm report in 2019: 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Brightwaters | $1,000 | A 22 inch diameter tree snapped about 25 feet above the ground on Sunny Lane. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Bay Shore | 1.1 miles | 33 | |
| West Bay Shore | 1.1 miles | 33 | |
| Bay Shore | 1.2 miles | 30 | |
| West Islip | 2.3 miles | 33 | |
| Bay Wood | 2.4 miles | 34 | |
| North Babylon | 2.9 miles | 33 | |
| Islip | 3.1 miles | 30 | |
| Pine Aire | 3.4 miles | 34 |
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 Brightwaters | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3452689 | 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 975774. 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.














