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

Whalom, Massachusetts

44 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Lunenburg town. It lies in ZIP code area 01462. It stands on Nichols Hill. The Survey maps it on the Shirley quadrangle.

Whalom within Worcester County

Then and now

1893 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 95 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Whalom, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of Whalom, surveyed 1893

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

175 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 175 fires within 5 miles of Whalom between 2015 and 2020, burning about 98 acres in total. 1 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
Debris and open burning	76
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	60
Smoking	26
Recreation and ceremony	7
Fireworks	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Natural	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
8 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
7 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
5 September 2016	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
5 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 September 2017	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
24 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3.4 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	MONOOSNOC HILL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,858 shown

Museums hold 1,858 specimens collected within 10 miles of Whalom between 1870 and 1974: 1,141 Animalia, 510 Plantae, 188 Fungi, 10 Unrecorded, 6 Chromista, 3 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. Ferrett 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
Athyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.Clausen	1900	Davenport	Pine Hill; Medford
Carex maritima Gunnerus	1870	J. W. Congdon	Wellville
Hylesinus aculeatus Say & T., 1824	1872	unknown	Fitchburg
Carex foenea Willd.	1878	W. Boott	Wachusett Mountain
Megascops asio asio (Linnaeus, 1758)	1879	Smith, J. C.; Thomas Wilmer Dewing collection	Groton
Sibbaldiopsis tridentata (Aiton) Rydb.	1879	Bailey, W.W.	summit of Mt. Wachusett
Papaver orientale L.	1880	unknown	Townsend.
Strix varia varia Barton, 1799	1880	Smith, J. C.; Thomas Wilmer Dewing collection	Groton
unnamed	1881	Sargent, F. L.	Groton, Mass. [Massachusetts]
Conocephalum conicum (L.) Underw.	1881	Charles W. Swan
Arthuriomyces peckianus (Howe) Cummins & Y.Hirats.	1892	W. B. Hosmer
Phyllosticta kalmicola (Schwein.) Ellis & Everh.	1894	H. L. Jones

All 1,858 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

8 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Whalom: 4 past producers, 2 producers, 1 occurrence, 1 unknown. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Tin, Lithium, Geothermal. 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
Fitchburg Area	Tin, Lithium	Occurrence
Leominster Pit	Geothermal	Past Producer
Keating Quarry & Mill	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Unknown
Keating Quarry and Mill	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Luenburg Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
P J Keating	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Szocik Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Tanzio Road Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

33 since 2007

The National Weather Service names Whalom in 33 storm reports between 2007 and 2023: 16 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 4 flash flood, 3 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
September 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	1 hurt	A branch was blown down onto a man, injuring him.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	$35,000	Trees and wires on Main and Day Streets were downed by thunderstorm winds. This resulted in a power loss to much of the west side of Leominster. In addition, numerous trees were downed throughout Fitchburg, including on Bemis, Kimball, Rollingstone, Charles, and Main Streets.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	$30,000	A tree on Belleview Road was downed onto a house by thunderstorm winds.
July 2010	Lightning	Whalom	$30,000	A lightning strike ignited a garage fire on Legate Hill.
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	$15,000	A one foot diameter tree was downed onto a house on Day Street by thunderstorm winds.
July 2008	Lightning	Whalom	$15,000	A house on Dartmouth Street was struck by lightning and caught fire.
September 2007	Lightning	Whalom	$10,000	Lightning struck a garage and ignited a fire.
September 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	$5,000	A tree was downed on Wachusett Street, near Pleasant Street.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	$5,000	A tree on Willow Street was downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	$5,000	A tree and wires were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	$5,000	A tree on Willow Street was downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	$2,000	Large branches and wires were downed by thunderstorm winds. The wires were downed onto a car.
August 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	$1,000	At 5:39 PM EST, a tree fell on wires on Johnny Appleseed Lane in Leominster.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	$1,000	At 5:33 PM EST, a tree was down across Pleasant Street in Leominster.
July 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	$1,000	At 12:20 PM EST, a thunderstorm approaching Leominster brought a tree down on Pleasant Street near Showlan Farms.
July 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	$1,000	At 105 PM, a portion of a tree was down on Lowe Street at Appletree Lane.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	$500	In Leominster, a tree was down blocking 7th St.
May 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	$500	Wires were downed by thunderstorm winds onto a tree.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Whalom	$500	Large branches were downed by thunderstorm winds.
September 2023	Flash Flood	Whalom	-	In Leominster, a culvert at Pleasant St and Colburn St washed out the foundation of a house. The residents were evacuated.
September 2023	Flash Flood	Whalom	-	In Leominster, Pond St at Pleasant St had a sink hold which formed and water rushed in. This washed away part of the road.
September 2023	Flash Flood	Whalom	-	In Leominster, Rt 117 had a section of road buckled.
September 2023	Flash Flood	Whalom	-	In Leominster, multiple homes had to be evacuated including a trailer park of 30 people on Central St.
August 2018	Flood	Whalom	-	At 1:08 PM EST, the intersection of Lancaster Street and Graham Street was reported closed due to flooding.
July 2017	Flood	Whalom	-	At 125 PM EST, a car was caught in flood waters in Leominster. The car was under an overpass on Lancaster Street near Graham Street.
March 2012	Hail	Whalom	-	Nickel size hail fell in a swath from Leominster to Lunenburg.
July 2010	Hail	Whalom	-	Golf ball sized hail was reported in Leominster.
June 2008	Hail	Whalom	-	Penny sized hail fell at the intersection of Adams and West Streets.
July 2008	Hail	Whalom	-	Penny to nickel sized hail fell in Leominster.
July 2014	Hail	Whalom	-	no account filed
June 2013	Hail	Whalom	-	no account filed
June 2011	Hail	Whalom	-	no account filed
August 2008	Hail	Whalom	-	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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Lunenburg	1.8 miles	44
South Fitchburg	2.0 miles	42
West Leominster	2.3 miles	42
North Leominster	2.4 miles	44
Goodrichville	2.8 miles	44
Fitchburg	3.0 miles	42
Leominster	3.5 miles	42
Lunenburg Station	3.5 miles	44

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.

Wikidata item Q122569949

The 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 610817. 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.