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

Wilbraham, Massachusetts

38 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Wilbraham town. It lies in ZIP code area 01095. It stands on Sunset Ridge. The Survey maps it on the Hampden quadrangle. 4,003 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 279 feet above sea level.

Wilbraham within Hampden County

Population over time

3 figures

Wilbraham grew from 3,544 to 4,003 between 2000 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.

Year	People	Change
2000	3,544
2010	3,915	+371 (+10%)
2020	4,003	+88 (+2%)

Then and now

1887 to 1985

The same ground, surveyed 98 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Wilbraham, surveyed 1985

Topographic sheet of Wilbraham, surveyed 1887

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

216 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 216 fires within 5 miles of Wilbraham between 2015 and 2020, burning about 107 acres in total. 12 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	108
Equipment and vehicle use	60
Recreation and ceremony	17
Natural	12
Smoking	11
Debris and open burning	5
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Arson/incendiarism	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
9 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
8 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
5 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
5 September 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 September 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
26 September 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
22 September 2018	Natural	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hampden County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,540 shown

Museums hold 1,540 specimens collected within 10 miles of Wilbraham between 1845 and 1975: 643 Fungi, 530 Animalia, 339 Plantae, 15 Chromista, 13 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. E. Kirk, A. M. & D. P. 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.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Taphrina johansonii Sadeb.	1894	W.G. Farlow
Lygodium palmatum (Bernh.) Sw.	1895	Deane, Walter	East Longmeadow;;;;
Polygonum pensylvanicum L.	1897	Morris,E.L. s.n. [1897-08]	[label: Flora of North America - Herbarium of E.L. Morris] Monson. Massachussets. Rubbish heaps
Galeopsis tetrahit L.	1845	not recorded
Icterus galbula (Linnaeus, 1758)	1857	Collector(s): Joel Asaph Allen	Springfield
Pipilo erythrophthalmus erythrophthalmus (Linnaeus, 1758)	1857	Collector(s): Joel Asaph Allen	Springfield
Setophaga aestiva aestiva (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)	1857	Collector(s): Joel Asaph Allen	Springfield
Turdus migratorius migratorius Linnaeus, 1766	1857	Collector(s): Joel Asaph Allen	Springfield
Rhinichthys atratulus (Hermann, 1804)	1859	Wheatland, R.H.	Chicopee River, at Chicopee, Hampden County, Massachusetts; Locality according to historical catalogue: 'Chicopa River, Massachusetts'/erroneous, is Chicopee River, at Chicopee, Massachusetts (according to MCZ online fish catalogue).
Rhododendron canadense (L.) Torr.	1861	not recorded	Chicopee
Usnea trichodea Ach.	1863	H. Mann	Connecticut River Valley
Alnus incana (L.) Moench	1891	unknown	Woods Hall.

All 1,540 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 Wilbraham: 5 producers, 4 past producers. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Dimension, Flagstone, 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.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
North Wilbraham Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
North Wilbraham Sand and Gravel Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Palmer Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Sandstone Quarry	Stone, Dimension	Producer	Sandstone
Sandstone Quarry	Stone, Dimension	Producer	Sandstone
Sandstone Quarry	Flagstone	Past Producer
Sandstone Quarry	Flagstone	Past Producer
Sandstone Quarry	Stone, Dimension	Producer	Sandstone
Sandstone Quarry	Flagstone	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Hampden County

Storms nearby

28 since 1993

The National Weather Service names Wilbraham in 28 storm reports between 1993 and 2024: 15 thunderstorm wind, 9 hail, 1 heavy rain, 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilbraham	$1,500,000	A microburst occurred near Wilbraham resulting in significant tree damage. Hundreds of trees were downed, some across roads, others into buildings. Ten to twenty roads or portions of roads were closed at any one time, thanks to trees and power lines down across them. The greatest concentration of wind damage was located in Wilbraham along an approximately 2 mile long path that extended from just north of Springfield Street across the Country Club of Wilbraham to just beyond Tinkham Road. Based on tree damage, the strongest winds were estimated to have been between 90 and 100 mph and occurred over a path that averaged 250 yards extending to 600 yards at its widest point along Springfield Road. Outside of this path, wind damage was less significant but still occurred for a half a mile on either side of the strongest wind core.
May 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	North Wilbraham	$15,000	Trees on Stony Hill and Brainard Roads and Ruth Drive were downed by thunderstorm winds.
February 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	North Wilbraham	$10,000	Trees on Lee Lane in Wilbraham were downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	North Wilbraham	$10,000	Trees were downed onto wires on Birch Street and Leemond Street.
May 2014	Flash Flood	Wilbraham	$10,000	In Chicopee, portions of Granby Road, Nash Street, and Memorial Drive were flooded with nearly a foot of water. A car was stuck in flood waters under the bridge at Prospect and North Chicopee Streets. Boston Road in Wilbraham was flooded with a foot of water. In Holyoke, a portion of Cabot Street was closed due to flooding. A car was stuck in water at the underpass on Appleton Street.
June 2013	Lightning	Wilbraham	$10,000	Lightning struck a camper, then a shed on Labelle Street, igniting a fire in the shed.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilbraham	$6,000	In Wilbraham, several homes along Monson Rd had trees on their roof, one with significant damage. The south portion of town was more affected.
August 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	North Wilbraham	$5,000	A tree and wires on Lake Drive were downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	North Wilbraham	$5,000	Trees were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	North Wilbraham	$5,000	Trees and wires down on Stoney Hill Road and near K-Mart were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	North Wilbraham	$3,000	Trees on Mohawk Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	North Wilbraham	$800	In Wilbraham, a large tree and wires were down on Mountain Road.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	North Wilbraham	$500	Tree down on power lines on Three Rivers Road in Palmer.
July 2019	Flood	North Wilbraham	-	There was 18 inches of street flooding on the southern end of Maynard Road in Wilbraham.
December 2019	Hail	North Wilbraham	-	Dime size hail from a thunderstorm was reported in Wilbraham.
June 2017	Hail	North Wilbraham	-	At 205 PM EST, a trained spotter reported nickel-size hail at Wilbraham.
June 2017	Hail	North Wilbraham	-	AT 220 PM EST, a trained spotter reported nickel-size hail at Wilbraham.
July 2007	Hail	Wilbraham	-	Penny size hail.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	North Wilbraham	-	Large trees down.
July 2011	Hail	North Wilbraham	-	no account filed
August 2011	Hail	North Wilbraham	-	no account filed
June 2011	Hail	Wilbraham	-	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	North Wilbraham	-	no account filed
August 2004	Hail	Wilbraham	-	no account filed
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilbraham	-	no account filed
May 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilbraham	-	no account filed
September 1999	Heavy Rain	Wilbraham	-	no account filed
August 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilbraham	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hampden 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
Mileoak Corner	1.1 miles	38
North Wilbraham	2.0 miles	37
Butlerville	2.5 miles	37
East Wilbraham	2.8 miles	37
Ludlow	3.4 miles	37
Sixteen Acres	3.7 miles	50
Red Bridge	3.7 miles	37
Hampden	4.2 miles	38

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 Wilbraham	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q8000130	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 609368. 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.