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

Northborough, Massachusetts

44 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Northborough town. It lies in ZIP code area 01532. It stands on Cold Harbor Brook. The Survey maps it on the Shrewsbury quadrangle.

Northborough within Worcester County

Then and now

1887 to 1989

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 Northborough, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Northborough, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

44 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

72 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 72 fires within 5 miles of Northborough between 2015 and 2020, burning about 42 acres in total. None started naturally. 9 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
Debris and open burning27
Missing data/not specified/undetermined20
Arson/incendiarism9
Smoking8
Recreation and ceremony5
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
7 September 2016Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMARLBORO
16 September 2020Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
11 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMARLBORO
1 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
1 September 2017Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMARLBORO
8 August 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 August 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 August 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,155 shown

Museums hold 1,155 specimens collected within 10 miles of Northborough between 1850 and 1975: 513 Animalia, 494 Plantae, 136 Fungi, 5 Chromista, 4 Protozoa, 3 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A E WOODHEAD, A. G. Chandler, A. H. Chivers 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 Sceptridium dissectum (Spreng.) LyonSceptridium dissectum (Spreng.) Lyon1899H. H. Scudder
A photograph of the species Geranium maculatum, not of this specimenGeranium maculatum L.1850not recorded
A photograph of the species Packera aurea, not of this specimenPackera aurea (L.) Á.Löve & D.Löve1850not recorded
A photograph of the species Quercus velutina, not of this specimenQuercus velutina Lam.1858E. S. HoarRoad to Marlboro, Concord.
A photograph of the species Condylura cristata, not of this specimenCondylura cristata cristata (Linnaeus, 1758)1859E S WheelerBERLIN
A photograph of the species Dryobates pubescens, not of this specimenDryobates pubescens medianus (Swainson, 1832)1861not recordedBolton
A photograph of the species Clemmys insculpta, not of this specimenClemmys insculpta Fitzinger, 18351864Agassiz
A photograph of the species Magnolia soulangeana, not of this specimenMagnolia × soulangeana Soul.-Bod.1866J. Mekenes
A photograph of the species Leathesia marina, not of this specimenLeathesia marina (Lyngb.) Decne.1875Mrs. H. A. C.Worceseter
Arphia sulphurea (Fabricius, 1781)1892unknownWellesley
A photograph of the species Castilleja coccinea, not of this specimenCastilleja coccinea (L.) Spreng.1892E. C. SmithMarboro.
Hepatica americana (DC.) Ker Gawl.1892Clarence Kinney

All 1,155 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

9 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Northborough: 7 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
Bates Sand and Gravel Co.Sand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Berin PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Berlin PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Berlin Town PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
C and M EnterprisesSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
E L Dauphanis IncSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
E. L. Dauphinais, IncorporatedSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Haynes PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Northboro PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

17 since 1998

The National Weather Service names Northborough in 17 storm reports between 1998 and 2021: 10 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 2 flash flood, 1 lightning. The reports record 2 injuries. 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
May 2006Thunderstorm WindNorthborough1 hurt, $50,000no account filed
May 2006Thunderstorm WindNorthborough1 hurt, $25,000no account filed
June 1998Flash FloodNorthborough$570,000West Branch of the Assabet River
August 2003Flash FloodNorthborough$50,000no account filed
August 2004HailNorthborough$25,000no account filed
May 2001LightningNorthborough$10,000no account filed
July 2021Thunderstorm WindNorthborough$8,000In Northborough, siding was blown off the side of a house at the intersection of Brigham Street and South Street.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindNorthborough$5,000A tree and large branch on Meadow Road were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindNorthborough$5,000A tree on Route 20 was downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindNorthborough$5,000Wires on Otis and Davis Streets were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindNorthborough$5,000no account filed
July 2016Thunderstorm WindNorthborough$1,000A tree limb on Meadow Road was downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2019Thunderstorm WindNorthborough$500In Northborough, a trees was down on School Street.
July 2009HailNorthborough-no account filed
May 2002HailNorthborough-no account filed
July 1999Thunderstorm WindNorthborough-no account filed
July 1999HailNorthborough-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Worcester 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
Woodside1.0 miles44
Chapinville1.5 miles42
Wessonville2.4 miles44
South Berlin2.9 miles44
Westborough3.7 miles42
Shrewsbury4.1 miles44
Berlin4.3 miles43
Ward Corner4.4 miles44

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 610881. 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.