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

Plainfield, Massachusetts

34 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Plainfield town. It lies in ZIP code area 01070. It stands on Warner Hill. The Survey maps it on the Plainfield quadrangle.

Plainfield within Hampshire County

Then and now

1886 to 1998

The same ground, surveyed 112 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Plainfield, surveyed 1998
Topographic sheet of Plainfield, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

34 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

3 since 2016

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Plainfield between 2016 and 2020, burning about 7 acres in total. None started naturally. None 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
Equipment and vehicle use1
Debris and open burning1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1

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
3 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 April 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
18 April 2016Equipment and vehicle use6.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hampshire County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 259 shown

Museums hold 259 specimens collected within 10 miles of Plainfield between 1825 and 1975: 102 Plantae, 91 Fungi, 65 Animalia, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Gurney, A. K. Harrison, A. M. Rogers 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 Buellia disciformis (Fr.) MuddBuellia disciformis (Fr.) Mudd1900George P. ClintonHammond Pond
Specimen of Graphis scripta (L.) Ach.Graphis scripta (L.) Ach.1900George P. ClintonHammond Pond
A photograph of the species Carex pauciflora, not of this specimenCarex pauciflora Lightf.1825Collector unspecifiedAshfield. [Inferred county from precise loc.]
A photograph of the species Veratrum viride, not of this specimenVeratrum viride subsp. viride1847not recordedBrunswick and Goshen
A photograph of the species Halenia deflexa, not of this specimenHalenia deflexa (Sm.) Griseb.1868Collector(s): Henry Griswold JesupCummington
A photograph of the species Botrychium matricariifolium, not of this specimenBotrychium matricariifolium (Döll) A.Braun ex Koch1873H. G. Jesup
Botrychium virginianum subsp. typicum R.T.Clausen1873Jesup, H.G.Goshen.
A photograph of the species Phegopteris connectilis, not of this specimenPhegopteris connectilis (Michx.) Watt1873H. G. Jesup
A photograph of the species Botrychium lanceolatum, not of this specimenBotrychium lanceolatum (S.G.Gmel.) Ångstr.1874H. G. Jesup
A photograph of the species Potamogeton gramineus, not of this specimenPotamogeton gramineus L.1875H. G. JesupAshfield Pond
A photograph of the species Diervilla lonicera, not of this specimenDiervilla lonicera Mill.1881Bassett, F.L.Ashfield
A photograph of the species Lithobates clamitans, not of this specimenLithobates clamitans (Latreille, 1801)1892not recordedWorthington

All 259 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 12 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 12 workings within 5 miles of Plainfield: 5 past producers, 3 producers, 3 occurrences, 1 prospect. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Manganese, Stone, Talc-Soapstone, Iron. 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
Betts Manganese MinesManganese, Iron, GemstoneProducer1830, 1925
Betts Mn Mines TaconicManganese, IronPast Producer
Packard Manganese OccurrenceMica, FeldsparOccurrenceFeldspar, Mica
Whetstone QuarryQuartzProducerQuartz
Talc ProspectTalc-SoapstoneOccurrenceMetamorphic
Talc ProspectTalc-SoapstoneProspect
Whetstone QuarryStonePast Producer
Whetstone QuarryStoneProducerMetamorphic
Whetstone QuarryStonePast Producer
Anson Betts Manganese MineManganesePast Producer1938

Every working recorded in Hampshire County

Storms nearby

25 since 1998

The National Weather Service names Plainfield in 25 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 12 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood. The reports record 1 death and 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
July 1999Thunderstorm WindPlainfield1 killed, 2 hurtno account filed
August 2008Flash FloodPlainfield$40,000Significant street flooding occurred with several roads closed during the storm. A few of these streets were washed out and badly damaged, including Union Street. About three inches of rain fell with the storms that moved through at this time.
July 2010Thunderstorm WindPlainfield$30,000Wires were downed on River Road.
May 2017Thunderstorm WindPlainfield$20,000At 515 PM EST, strong winds were reported that blew down multiple large trees and damaged the roof of a building on Prospect Street in Plainfield.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindPlainfield$15,000Thunderstorm winds downed trees on wires in Plainfield and Cummington. In Chesterfield, a downed tree blocked Old Chesterfield Road.
August 2011Thunderstorm WindPlainfield$15,000Multiple trees on Route 116 were downed by thunderstorm winds. The trees fell across the road, resulting in the road being closed.
May 2002Thunderstorm WindPlainfield$8,000no account filed
July 2010Thunderstorm WindPlainfield$5,000Large tree limbs were downed at a campground off Route 116.
July 2010Thunderstorm WindPlainfield$3,000A tree and several large limbs were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2018Thunderstorm WindPlainfield$2,000At 3:24 PM EST, a tree and wires were reported down on Prospect Street in Plainfield.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindPlainfield$500In Plainfield, a tree was down on a car.
October 2020Thunderstorm WindPlainfield$500In Plainfield, a tree was down on Route 116.
July 2024HailPlainfield-In Plainfield 3/4 hail was reported.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindPlainfield-In Plainfield a tree was reported down blocking the road.
June 2018HailPlainfield-At 4:17 PM EST, hail up to 1 inch in diameter was reported on North Union Street and on Campbell Road.
May 2017HailPlainfield-At 502 PM EST, dime size hail covered the ground in Plainfield.
September 2008HailPlainfield-Quarter to half dollar size hail fell on West Main and Summit Streets.
August 2011HailPlainfield-no account filed
June 2011HailPlainfield-no account filed
July 2009HailPlainfield-no account filed
August 2008HailPlainfield-no account filed
May 2004HailPlainfield-no account filed
June 2001HailPlainfield-no account filed
June 2001HailPlainfield-no account filed
June 1998HailPlainfield-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hampshire 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
West Cummington3.2 miles35
Bryant Four Corners3.3 miles35
Cummington3.9 miles35
Swift River5.6 miles38
Lithia5.9 miles38
Worthington Corners7.3 miles35
West Worthington7.4 miles35
Camp Howe7.9 miles38

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 607941. 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.