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

North Reading, Massachusetts

40 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in North Reading town. It lies in ZIP code area 01864. It stands on Martins Brook. The Survey maps it on the Reading quadrangle.

North Reading within Middlesex County

Then and now

1886 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 102 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of North Reading, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of North Reading, 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

45 since 2003

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 45 fires within 5 miles of North Reading between 2003 and 2020, burning about 28 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was 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
Debris and open burning	15
Recreation and ceremony	12
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	8
Smoking	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Arson/incendiarism	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
7 September 2007	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
6 September 2007	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
21 September 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
15 September 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	LYNNFIELD
8 August 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	MIDDLETON
7 August 2016	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	MIDDLETON
4 August 2015	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	AMESBURY
30 August 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	LYNNFIELD

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 519 shown

Museums hold 519 specimens collected within 10 miles of North Reading between 1898 and 1975: 258 Plantae, 222 Animalia, 29 Fungi, 6 Unrecorded, 4 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A B. Proper, A. E. Sears, A. F. Newton 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.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Trientalis borealis Raf.	1900	A. P. Chute
Cantharellus infundibuliformis (Scop.) Fr.	1898	not recorded	Melrose.
Cordyceps capitata (Holmsk.) Link	1898	Conant, [?] F.	Middlesex Fells
Esox americanus Gmelin, 1789	1898	E. Preble	Maple Meadow Brook near Wilmington, Massachusetts
Gloeocystis rupestris (Lyngb.) Rabenh.	1898	F. S. Collins	Pine Banks Park, on wet perpendicular cliff
Gloeocystis vesiculosa Nägeli	1898	F. S. Collins	Pine Banks Park, on wet perpendicular cliff
Lentinus tigrinus (Bull.) Fr.	1898	J. F. Conant	Middlesex Fells.
Oedogonium borisianum (Le Clerk) Wittr.	1898	F. S. Collins	Pine Banks Park, in roadside pool
Aphanochaete repens A.Braun	1900	F. S. Collins	Middlesex Fells, Wright's Pond, on Oedogonium, etc.
Batrachospermum gelatinosum (L.) DC.	1900	F.S. Collins	Malden
Batrachospermum moniliforme Sirodot	1900	F. S. Collins	Malden, MA
Betula alleghaniensis Britton	1900	E. F. Williams

All 519 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 13 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 13 workings within 5 miles of North Reading: 8 past producers, 3 producers, 1 unknown, 1 plant. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Titanium, Metal, Titanium. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Ferro Ceramic Grinding--Wakefield	Silica	Plant
Heffron Asphalt Co--Wilmington, Ma.	Titanium	Past Producer
Heffron Asphalt Corp	Titanium, Metal	Past Producer
Marlborough Plant/Polishing Plates	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
North Wilmington Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Acme Concrete Co. Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Benevento Sand and Gravel	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Drinkwater Quarry	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Groton Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
New England Crushing Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms nearby

8 since 2004

The National Weather Service names North Reading in 8 storm reports between 2004 and 2020: 6 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 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
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	North Reading	$15,000	no account filed
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	North Reading	$15,000	no account filed
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	North Reading	$10,000	A tree and wires on Route 162 were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	North Reading	$5,000	A tree on North Street was downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	North Reading	$5,000	no account filed
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	North Reading	$1,000	At 118 PM EST, a tree was down across Haverhill Street in North Reading.
September 2020	Flood	North Reading	-	In North Reading, Marshall Street at Parker Drive was impassable due to flooding.
March 2012	Hail	North Reading	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Middlesex 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
West Village	1.9 miles	40
Reading	3.5 miles	40
Reading Highlands	3.9 miles	40
North Wilmington	4.1 miles	41
Montrose	4.3 miles	40
Wakefield	4.7 miles	40
Wilmington Junction	4.8 miles	41
Wilmington	5.4 miles	41

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 612790. 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.