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

Scituate, Massachusetts

39 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Scituate town. It lies in ZIP code area 02066. It stands on Satuit Brook. The Survey maps it on the Scituate quadrangle. 5,620 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 36 feet above sea level.

Scituate within Plymouth County

Population over time

2 figures

Scituate grew from 5,245 to 5,620 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
20105,245
20205,620+375 (+7%)

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 Scituate, surveyed 1984
Topographic sheet of Scituate, surveyed 1885

Compare 1885 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

39 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 near this place

68 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 68 fires within 5 miles of Scituate between 2015 and 2020, burning about 20 acres in total. 4 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 burning42
Missing data/not specified/undetermined8
Recreation and ceremony5
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Natural4
Smoking4
Arson/incendiarism1

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
4 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSCITUATE
26 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSCITUATE
14 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSCITUATE
3 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlHANOVER
29 August 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlNORWELL
27 August 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSCITUATE
21 August 2016Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSCITUATE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Plymouth County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,162 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,162 specimens collected within 10 miles of Scituate between 1836 and 1975: 492 Plantae, 352 Animalia, 154 Unrecorded, 89 Fungi, 69 Chromista, 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 1,162 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms near this place

15 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Scituate in 15 storm reports between 2000 and 2024: 7 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 3 flood, 1 lightning. 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
June 2008LightningScituate1 hurtA 49 year old man was walking on the beach when he was struck by lightning and knocked unconscious. His wife was with him but was unharmed.
June 2012Thunderstorm WindScituate$15,000Large tree limbs were downed by thunderstorms throughout Scituate, including one on South Main Street that was downed onto wires.
August 2010Thunderstorm WindScituate$10,000Several trees were downed by thunderstorm winds throughout Scituate.
April 2017FloodScituate$5,000At 1158 AM EST, an amateur radio operator reported a flooded basement on Porter Road in Scituate.
August 2005Thunderstorm WindScituate$5,000no account filed
July 2019Thunderstorm WindScituate$2,500Multiple trees were reported down across the town of Scituate.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindNorth Scituate$1,000In Cohasset, a large tree limb and wires were down on Beechwood St.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindScituate$800In Scituate, a tree and wires were down on Beaver Dam Road.
January 2024FloodNorth Scituate-Places like Duxbury and East Bridgewater received 4.49 inches and 3.62 inches of rain respectively. In North Scituate at 2:30 AM EST Hollett St at Country Way was flooded.
September 2023FloodNorth Scituate-In Cohasset, a portion of Chief Justice Cushing Rd was flooded and impassable.
August 2014HailScituate-no account filed
July 2012HailScituate-no account filed
July 2000HailScituate-no account filed
July 2000Thunderstorm WindScituate-no account filed
July 2000HailScituate-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
Second Cliff0.5 miles39
First Cliff0.6 miles39
Scituate Station0.8 miles39
Sand Hills1.0 miles39
Hatherly Beach1.2 miles39
Third Cliff1.2 miles39
Shore Acres1.4 miles39
Rivermoor1.5 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 ScituateAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7434110The 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 615361. 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.