Cato, New York
26 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1902 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Ira town. It lies in ZIP code area 13033. The Survey maps it on the Cato quadrangle. 517 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 459 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1902 to 1985The 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 figuresCato fell from 532 to 517 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 | 532 | |
| 2020 | 517 | -15 (-3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 26 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.
- 1902 USGS Weedsport quadrangle1:62500, 10 printings
- 1943 USGS Cato quadrangle1:31680
- 1954 USGS Cato quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1954 USGS Weedsport quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Rochester quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Rochester quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1965 USGS Rochester quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Syracuse quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
45 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 45 fires within 5 miles of Cato between 1999 and 2020, burning about 51 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 6 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 | 18 |
| Debris and open burning | 9 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 6 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 4 |
| Natural | 3 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | not named |
| 17 September 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | N/A |
| 16 September 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | N/A |
| 1 September 1999 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | New York Forest Rangers | not named |
| 2 August 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | N/A |
| 19 August 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | not named |
| 14 August 2020 | Natural | 4.5 acres | Fire Department of New York | NA |
| 12 August 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
41 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cato in 41 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 32 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 1 funnel cloud, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $5,000,000 | no account filed |
| April 2017 | Flood | Cato | $75,000 | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Cato | $25,000 | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $20,000 | no account filed |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $15,000 | Law enforcement reported trees and power lines down by thunderstorm winds. |
| September 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $15,000 | Law enforcement reported trees and wires down. |
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $15,000 | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $15,000 | no account filed |
| August 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $12,000 | no account filed |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $10,000 | Multiple trees and wires downed in the Town of Cato. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $10,000 | Law enforcement reported trees and wires downed by thunderstorm winds. |
| September 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $10,000 | Law enforcement reported trees and wires down. |
| June 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $10,000 | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $10,000 | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $10,000 | no account filed |
| August 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $8,000 | Law enforcement reported trees downed by thunderstorm winds. |
| April 2006 | Hail | Cato | $8,000 | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $8,000 | no account filed |
| September 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $8,000 | no account filed |
| August 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $7,000 | no account filed |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $5,000 | Several trees downed in Cato. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $5,000 | Multiple reports of trees and wires downed in Cato. |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $2,000 | Trees and wires downed in the Town of Cato. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $2,000 | Trees and wires were reported down. |
| May 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $2,000 | Trees were reported down. |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $2,000 | Trees down in Cato. |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $1,000 | Report of 2 trees downed in the town of Ira. |
| July 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | $1,000 | Trees down in Cato. |
| August 2025 | Hail | Cato | - | Image sent with hail and tape measure. |
| August 2025 | Hail | Cato | - | Hail size estimated from picture. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | - | Large tree downed on a carport. |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cato | - | Emergency management reported trees and wires blown down by thunderstorm winds 3 miles south of Cato. |
| August 2025 | Hail | Cato | - | no account filed |
| June 2022 | Hail | Cato | - | no account filed |
| August 2011 | Hail | Cato | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Funnel Cloud | Cato | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meridian | 1.9 miles | 26 | |
| Ira | 3.8 miles | 26 | |
| Victory | 4.8 miles | 24 | |
| Conquest | 5.1 miles | 26 | |
| Emerson | 5.2 miles | 27 | |
| Bethel Corners | 5.6 miles | 26 | |
| Floridaville | 6.7 miles | 23 | |
| Spring Lake | 6.8 miles | 24 |
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 Cato | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3461443 | 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 946053. 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.
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.







