Shirley, New York
18 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1904 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Brookhaven town. It lies in ZIP code area 11967. The Survey maps it on the Moriches quadrangle. 26,360 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 52 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1904 to 1984The same ground, surveyed 80 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 figuresShirley fell from 27,854 to 26,360 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 | 27,854 | |
| 2020 | 26,360 | -1,494 (-5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 18 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.
- 1904 USGS Moriches quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1949 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Moriches quadrangle1:24000
- 1957 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1967 USGS Moriches quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1969 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Long Island East quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
1,092 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1,092 fires within 5 miles of Shirley between 1992 and 2020, burning about 3,135 acres in total. 47 started naturally. 381 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 | 536 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 381 |
| Smoking | 47 |
| Natural | 47 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 36 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 18 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 13 |
| Debris and open burning | 7 |
| Fireworks | 5 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2012 | 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 |
| 8 September 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | New York Forest Rangers | not named |
| 7 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | N/A |
| 7 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | N/A |
| 7 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | N/A |
| 7 September 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Fire Department of New York | NA |
| 7 September 2014 | 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
3 since 2008Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Shirley in 3 storm reports between 2008 and 2019: 2 flash flood, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shirley | $1,000 | A tree down on Lawrence Road. Time is estimated. |
| August 2018 | Flash Flood | Shirley | - | Monroe Drive in Mastic Beach was impassable due to flooding. |
| July 2008 | Flash Flood | Shirley | - | Floyd Road in Shirley was impassable due to flooding. A storm total rainfall report of 3.87 inches was received by the public in Shirley. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mastic | 1.4 miles | 18 | |
| South Haven | 1.5 miles | 20 | |
| Moriches | 2.5 miles | 18 | |
| Mastic Beach | 2.5 miles | 18 | |
| Old Mastic | 2.7 miles | 18 | |
| Brookhaven | 3.0 miles | 20 | |
| Yaphank | 3.6 miles | 20 | |
| Center Moriches | 4.1 miles | 18 |
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 Shirley | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2671223 | 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 970601. 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.









