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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.

Brightwaters within Suffolk County

Then and now

1901 to 1984

The 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.

Topographic sheet of Brightwaters, surveyed 1984
Topographic sheet of Brightwaters, surveyed 1901

Population over time

2 figures

Brightwaters 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.

YearPeople Change
20103,103
20203,181+78 (+3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

15 surveys from 33 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

1,090 since 1992

Regional 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/undetermined593
Arson/incendiarism288
Natural120
Debris and open burning21
Smoking21
Equipment and vehicle use17
Misuse of fire by a minor17
Recreation and ceremony8
Power generation/transmission/distribution3
Railroad operations and maintenance2

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
9 September 2018Arson/incendiarism3.1 acresFire Department of New YorkN/A
9 September 2017Arson/incendiarismunder an acreFire Department of New YorkN/A
9 September 2013Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New YorkN/A
9 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
9 September 2007Naturalunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
8 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.9 acresFire Department of New YorkN/A
8 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
8 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Suffolk 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 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Bay Shore PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary

Every working recorded in Suffolk County

Storms near this place

1 since 2019

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2019Thunderstorm WindBrightwaters$1,000A 22 inch diameter tree snapped about 25 feet above the ground on Sunny Lane.

Every storm recorded in Suffolk 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
North Bay Shore1.1 miles33
West Bay Shore1.1 miles33
Bay Shore1.2 miles30
West Islip2.3 miles33
Bay Wood2.4 miles34
North Babylon2.9 miles33
Islip3.1 miles30
Pine Aire3.4 miles34

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 BrightwatersAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3452689The 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.