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

Norwell, Massachusetts

38 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Norwell town. It lies in ZIP code area 02061. It stands on Second Herring Brook. The Survey maps it on the Cohasset quadrangle.

Norwell within Plymouth County

Then and now

1885 to 1984

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 Norwell, surveyed 1984
Topographic sheet of Norwell, surveyed 1885

Compare 1885 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

38 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

211 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 211 fires within 5 miles of Norwell between 2015 and 2020, burning about 62 acres in total. 5 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
Debris and open burning129
Missing data/not specified/undetermined47
Misuse of fire by a minor16
Smoking6
Natural5
Recreation and ceremony5
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 ControlHANOVER
6 September 2020Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMARSHFIELD
4 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMARSHFIELD
4 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSCITUATE
29 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
28 September 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Plymouth County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,227 shown

Museums hold 1,227 specimens collected within 10 miles of Norwell between 1836 and 1975: 522 Plantae, 285 Animalia, 240 Fungi, 119 Unrecorded, 42 Chromista, 13 Protozoa, 6 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A Loveridge, A. B. Seymour, A. C. Mathieson 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
A photograph of the species Carex trisperma, not of this specimenCarex trisperma Dewey1836J. W. Robbins
A photograph of the species Cladonia rangiferina, not of this specimenCladonia rangiferina (L.) Weber1844J. L. RussellHingham
A photograph of the species Lopadium disciforme, not of this specimenLopadium disciforme (Flot.) Kullh.1848J. L. Russell
A photograph of the species Cladonia gracilis, not of this specimenCladonia gracilis (L.) Willd.1849J. L. RussellHingham
A photograph of the species Spyridia filamentosa, not of this specimenSpyridia filamentosa (Wulfen) Harv.1849see Collection Note
A photograph of the species Frullania asagrayana, not of this specimenFrullania asagrayana Mont.1850J. L. Russell
A photograph of the species Hypnum curvifolium, not of this specimenHypnum curvifolium Hedw.1851W. L. RussellHingham
A photograph of the species Lobaria pulmonaria, not of this specimenLobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm.1851J. L. Russell
A photograph of the species Ameiurus nebulosus, not of this specimenAmeiurus nebulosus (Lesueur, 1819)1852S. BairdHingham Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Cyperus lupulinus, not of this specimenCyperus lupulinus subsp. macilentus (Fernald) Marcks1899E. F. Williams
Lolium multiflorum Lam.1899not recorded
A photograph of the species Penthorum sedoides, not of this specimenPenthorum sedoides L.1899E. F. Williams

All 1,227 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

1 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Norwell: 1 producer. All of them 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
Cherry Street Plant, MayflowerSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Plymouth County

Storms nearby

4 since 1997

The National Weather Service names Norwell in 4 storm reports between 1997 and 2015: 2 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning. 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
July 2004HailNorwell$35,000no account filed
August 2015LightningNorwell$15,000Lightning struck a house on Henry's Lane, causing an attic fire.
September 2008Thunderstorm WindNorwell$1,000Tree limbs on Route 123, up to eight inches in diameter, were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 1997HailNorwell-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Plymouth 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
Kings Landing1.5 miles38
Sherman Corner1.8 miles38
North Marshfield1.8 miles38
Old Oaken Bucket Homestead2.3 miles38
Mungo Corner2.4 miles38
Greenbush2.6 miles39
Little Bridge2.7 miles39
Manson Corner2.8 miles38

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 613850. 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.