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Austwell, Texas

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1952 and the latest in 1983. It stands in the Austwell-Tivoli census division. It lies in ZIP code area 77950. The Survey maps it on the Austwell quadrangle. 118 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 23 feet above sea level.

Austwell within Refugio County

Population over time

3 figures

Austwell fell from 192 to 118 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, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. 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
2000192
2010147-45 (-23%)
2020118-29 (-20%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 8 printed 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

6 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Austwell between 1995 and 2020, burning about 25 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 burning2
Equipment and vehicle use2
Natural1
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
18 July 2011Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreAransas National Wildlife RefugeTOBIAS 2
18 July 2009Natural5.0 acresAransas National Wildlife RefugeKUBECKA FIRE
22 May 2008Debris and open burning5.0 acresAransas National Wildlife RefugeTOBIAS FIRE
15 May 1995Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreAransas National Wildlife RefugeTRACTOR
8 February 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined10 acresTexas A & M Forest Service75
26 February 2006Debris and open burning5.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Refugio County

Storms near this place

11 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Austwell in 11 storm reports between 2009 and 2021: 5 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 heavy rain, 1 flood. 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
April 2015HailAustwell$250,000Wind blown golf ball sized hail caused damage to many windows in businesses and homes in Austwell.
April 2015Thunderstorm WindAustwell$100,000A metal garage was blown over. Large trees were blown down along with numerous power lines through much of the community of Austwell.
April 2015Thunderstorm WindAustwell$100,000NWS storm survey conducted along with the Emergency Manager and County Sheriff concluded straight line winds caused damage in the tiny fishing village of Hopper's Landing. A pavilion was blown into the bay. Very large trees were blown down.
April 2015HailAustwell$50,000Wind blown tennis ball sized hail destroyed windows and siding in Hopper's Landing.
May 2020HailAustwell$10,000Quarter sized hail occurred in Austwell.
April 2012HailAustwell$10,000Golf ball sized hail reported by Austwell Postmaster.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindAustwell-Observer estimated wind gust to near 60 MPH near Austwell.
July 2021Heavy RainAustwell-Damage estimates due to sorghum losses in the county were at 7.011 million dollars across the county due to heavy rainfall. A 40 percent loss occurred with the sorghum crop.
August 2017FloodAustwell-USGS survey showed flood waters reached 2 to 3 feet across portions of eastern Refugio County. Floodwaters inundated portions of Highway 35 south of Tivoli. Radar data estimated 15 to 20 inches of rain occurred in this region.
December 2012HailAustwell-CoCoRaHS observer reported dime sized hail occurred in Austwell.
April 2009Heavy RainAustwell-A CoCoRaHS observer in Austwell recorded 3.91 inches of rainfall.

Every storm recorded in Refugio 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
Maudlowe3.6 miles8
Tivoli5.1 miles8
Inari14.1 miles8
Vidaurri15.9 miles9
Quintana16.3 miles9
Refugio23.7 miles8
Ryanville25.1 miles8
Woodsboro27.4 miles8

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 AustwellAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q784018The 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 1329871. 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.

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.