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

Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts

40 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Bourne town. It lies in ZIP code area 02532. It stands on Monument River (historical). The Survey maps it on the Pocasset quadrangle. 4,279 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 10 feet above sea level.

Buzzards Bay within Barnstable County

Population over time

2 figures

Buzzards Bay grew from 3,859 to 4,279 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. 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
20103,859
20204,279+420 (+11%)

Then and now

1886 to 1994

The same ground, surveyed 108 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Buzzards Bay, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Buzzards Bay, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

40 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

193 since 2001

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 193 fires within 5 miles of Buzzards Bay between 2001 and 2020, burning about 123 acres in total. 7 started naturally. 18 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/undetermined74
Debris and open burning34
Smoking32
Arson/incendiarism18
Misuse of fire by a minor12
Equipment and vehicle use8
Natural7
Recreation and ceremony7
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWAREHAM
7 September 2020Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 September 2002Smokingunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
6 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWAREHAM
5 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWAREHAM
4 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWAREHAM
4 September 2004Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
3 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Barnstable County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 2,300 shown

Museums hold 2,300 specimens collected within 10 miles of Buzzards Bay between 1816 and 1975: 1,180 Animalia, 688 Plantae, 344 Fungi, 74 Chromista, 8 Bacteria, 4 Unrecorded, 2 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. H. Moore, A. Humes 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 Tolyposporium eriocauli G.P.ClintonTolyposporium eriocauli G.P.Clinton1900G.P. Clinton
Specimen of Ustilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & SwingleUstilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & Swingle1900G. P. Clinton
A photograph of the species Cistus L., not of this specimenCistus L.1816Boott, F.M.Sandwich, Massts. [=Sandwich, Massachusetts].
Lythraceae1816Boott, J.W.Sandwich, Mass'ts. | [On reverse of sheet:] From Sandwich, Mass'ts U.S.A. [=From Sandwich, Massachusetts, U.S.A.]
A photograph of the species Malva neglecta, not of this specimenMalva neglecta Wallr.1816Boott, J.W.Sandwich. Mass.tts.
A photograph of the species Juncus greenei, not of this specimenJuncus greenei Oakes & Tuck.1825W. OakesPlymouth
A photograph of the species Baptisia tinctoria, not of this specimenBaptisia tinctoria (L.) R.Br.1837J. Blake
A photograph of the species Amaranthus hybridus, not of this specimenAmaranthus hybridus L.1855not recorded
A photograph of the species Clethra alnifolia, not of this specimenClethra alnifolia L.1855not recorded
A photograph of the species Euthamia lanceolata, not of this specimenEuthamia lanceolata (L.) G.L.Nesom1855not recorded
A photograph of the species Persicaria pensylvanica, not of this specimenPersicaria pensylvanica (L.) Small1855not recorded
A photograph of the species Stachys hyssopifolia, not of this specimenStachys hyssopifolia Michx.1855not recorded

All 2,300 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms nearby

9 since 2008

The National Weather Service names Buzzards Bay in 9 storm reports between 2008 and 2023: 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 2 lightning, 2 flood. The reports record 1 injury. 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 2008Thunderstorm WindBuzzards Bay1 hurt, $500Thunderstorm winds uprooted a tent secured with 18 inch steel stakes at the Pan-Mass Challenge. One of these stakes struck a person, causing minor injuries.
July 2014LightningBuzzards Bay$75,000A house was struck by lightning on Columbia Street in Ayer, which ignited a two-alarm fire.
July 2023LightningBuzzards Bay$2,000In Hatfield, a power pole was struck by lightning on King Street at Prospect Street, causing a pole fire, with wires down.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindBuzzards Bay$2,000In Bourne, two trees were down on wires on Snow Circle. Two large limbs were down on Puritan Rd. at Wall St. Many large branches were down on Sandwich Rd at Ben Abby Rd.
September 2023Flash FloodBuzzards Bay-In Agawam, Liberty Street had 1 ft of water on it.
August 2023FloodBuzzards Bay-In Shrewsbury, Mass DOT reported Rt 20 briefly closed in both direction.
October 2018FloodBuzzards Bay-Walnut Street at Oakdale Avenue flooded.
September 2013Flash FloodBuzzards Bay-Heavy rain resulted in flash flooding across much of the upper Cape. In Sandwich, two feet of water flooded Route 6A and Main Street. River Street was closed due to flooding. Scorton Creek overflowed its banks, with flooding partially blocking Route 6A. One foot of water flooded Beale Avenue, Main Street, and Quaker Meeting House Road. Route 6A at Spring Hill Road was flooded with six inches of water. In Mashpee, the Mashpee Rotary, Route 28, and Route 151 were flooded. In Bourne, numerous basements were flooded with debris flowing into backyards.
August 2011HailBuzzards Bay-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Barnstable 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
Bourne Corners0.7 miles39
Gray Gables0.8 miles40
Bourne1.1 miles40
Monument Beach1.8 miles40
Tahanto Beach3.1 miles40
North Pocasset3.5 miles40
Pocasset Station3.6 miles40
Bournedale3.6 miles39

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 Buzzards BayAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q5003578The 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 616369. 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.

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.