BlockBefore
Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Brightwood, Massachusetts

50 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Springfield City. It lies in ZIP code area 01107. It stands on Piper Brook. The Survey maps it on the Springfield South quadrangle.

Brightwood within Hampden County

Then and now

1886 to 1985

The same ground, surveyed 99 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Brightwood, surveyed 1985
Topographic sheet of Brightwood, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

50 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 nearby

522 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 522 fires within 5 miles of Brightwood between 2015 and 2020, burning about 173 acres in total. 18 started naturally. 3 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/undetermined279
Equipment and vehicle use141
Debris and open burning35
Recreation and ceremony26
Natural18
Smoking17
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Arson/incendiarism3

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
8 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
6 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2016Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hampden County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,683 shown

Museums hold 1,683 specimens collected within 10 miles of Brightwood between 1831 and 1975: 636 Animalia, 615 Plantae, 384 Fungi, 32 Chromista, 12 Unrecorded, 4 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Albee, A. B. Seymour, A. B. Seymour; S. and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Image SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
Specimen of Lycopodiella inundata (L.) HolubLycopodiella inundata (L.) Holub1892ChapmanSouthhampton
Specimen of Sphagnum recurvum P.Beauv.Sphagnum recurvum P.Beauv.1893Daniel C. Eaton
Specimen of Taphrina johansonii Sadeb.Taphrina johansonii Sadeb.1894W.G. Farlow
A photograph of the species Carex bromoides, not of this specimenCarex bromoides Willd.1831Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Carex vesicaria, not of this specimenCarex vesicaria L.1836Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Carex vestita, not of this specimenCarex vestita Willd.1836Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Carex siccata, not of this specimenCarex siccata Dewey1844Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Amphicarpaea bracteata, not of this specimenAmphicarpaea bracteata (L.) Fernald1845Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Galeopsis tetrahit, not of this specimenGaleopsis tetrahit L.1845not recorded
A photograph of the species Alopecurus geniculatus, not of this specimenAlopecurus geniculatus L.1850not recorded
A photograph of the species Lactuca hirsuta, not of this specimenLactuca hirsuta Muhl. ex Nutt.1850Collector unspecified
Alnus incana (L.) Moench1891unknownWoods Hall.

All 1,683 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 42 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 42 workings within 5 miles of Brightwood: 21 past producers, 16 producers, 3 occurrences, 1 unknown. 17 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Brick Clay, Clay. 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
Construction Aggregates PitGranite, Stone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Macia Emery MineEmeryOccurrenceEmery
W. New England Smelting Works IncCopperProducer
Bay State Refining Co--Chicopee, MaAluminumPlant
Chicopee PlantAluminumPast Producer
Sandstone QuarryStone, DimensionProducerSandstone
Sandstone QuarryFlagstonePast Producer
Sandstone QuarryStone, DimensionProducer
Sandstone QuarryStone, DimensionProducerSandstone
Sandstone QuarryFlagstonePast Producer

Every working recorded in Hampden County

Storms nearby

10 since 2014

The National Weather Service names Brightwood in 10 storm reports between 2014 and 2024: 6 flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 hail. 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
August 2018FloodBrightwood$20,000At 1:48 PM EST, water was flowing into basements on Melha Avenue and Parkside Street, as well as Ashley Street.
July 2015LightningBrightwood$5,000Lightning struck a transformer, causing a fire on Melville Street at St. James Avenue.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindBrightwood$4,000In Springfield's North End, multiple trees and wires were down on Dwight Street, with one of the trees having landed on a house.
July 2014Thunderstorm WindBrightwood$3,000A large limb was downed onto Worthington Street. Also an awning was blown off a building on Chestnut Street, damaging a car.
May 2024HailBrightwood-In Brightwood quarter sized hail fell.
July 2019FloodBrightwood-Water was coming out of manhole covers on Main Street in Springfield.
September 2018FloodBrightwood-At 9:25 PM EST, Piper Cross Road in West Springfield was flooded and impassable.
August 2018FloodBrightwood-At 1:09 PM EST, the Dwight Street ramp for Route 91 was impassable due to flooding.
June 2018FloodBrightwood-At 2:55 PM EST flooding was reported at the railroad underpass near Liberty and Main Streets.
July 2017FloodBrightwood-At 355 PM EST, manhole covers on Main Street in Springfield were popping due to flooding. The area was near a McDonalds.

Every storm recorded in Hampden 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
Merrick0.5 miles50
Riverdale0.5 miles50
North End0.8 miles50
West Springfield0.8 miles50
Liberty Heights1.1 miles50
Cayenne1.4 miles43
North Agawam1.8 miles48
Springfield1.8 miles50

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 608982. 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.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

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.