BlockBefore

Cactus, Texas

6 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1965. It stands in the Dumas census division. It lies in ZIP code area 79013. The Survey maps it on the Cactus West quadrangle. 3,057 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,619 feet above sea level.

Cactus within Moore County

Population over time

2 figures

Cactus fell from 3,179 to 3,057 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, 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
20103,179
20203,057-122 (-4%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 6 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

30 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 30 fires within 5 miles of Cactus between 2006 and 2018, burning about 122 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined24
Debris and open burning4
Natural1
Equipment and vehicle use1

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 August 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceWINNONA
9 July 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceDUTCHER476
5 July 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceWATER TOWER
6 June 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServicePALODURO
6 June 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServicePALODURO2
3 June 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceNORTH 287
24 June 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceDEBRUCE
24 June 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceCITY HALL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Moore County

Storms near this place

34 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cactus in 34 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 21 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash 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
May 2003Thunderstorm WindCactus$45,000High winds tore the roof off of a trailer home.
March 2000Thunderstorm WindCactus$30,000The shop building door was blown off from the Cactus Feed Yard along with windows blown out.
June 2006Thunderstorm WindCactus$12,000Two grain bins reported to be overturned by the high winds.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindCactus$10,000Local law enforcement officials reported multiple power lines had blown down...dumpsters were overturned...tree limbs had blown down...a water tank had blown over...shingles had blown off roofs of homes in the area...and a roof had blown off a local business by the strong thunderstorm wind gusts.
May 2023Thunderstorm WindCactus$5,000A metal roof was blown off one of the apartment buildings at the Cactus JBS apartments.
May 2024Thunderstorm WindCactus$4,000A three inch diameter tree limb was snapped. A couple of dead or diseased trees were uprooted. One of these trees fell on and damaged a residents chain link fence.
May 2023Flash FloodCactus-Torrential rainfall rates of 3 to 5 inches per hour resulted in major street flooding throughout town. Vehicles were stranded with several water rescues being conducted. Some streets had fast flowing water over a foot deep covering the street.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindCactus-Tree limbs, 3 inches in diameter, were blown down along with power poles blown over in Cactus, TX.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindCactus-Spotter had measured the thunderstorm wind gust with a handheld wind meter.
June 2018HailCactus-Had leaves blown from trees.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindCactus-Power lines blown down near and on the road along highway 287 just north of Cactus. Time estimated by radar.
May 2016HailCactus-Quarter size hail occurred 2 miles east of Cactus and was reported to be covering Highway 281.
August 2009Thunderstorm WindCactus-A trained spotter estimated thunderstorm wind gusts of fifty-two knots in Cactus.
August 2006HailCactus-Reported at the cotton gin on U.S. Highway 287.
June 1994HailCactus-Evening thunderstorms in northwest Texas panhandle produce baseball-size hail and 60 mph winds. No damage reported with the baseball-size hail.
May 2023HailCactus-no account filed
May 2021HailCactus-no account filed
June 2018HailCactus-no account filed
April 2012HailCactus-no account filed
June 2010HailCactus-no account filed
July 2009HailCactus-no account filed
March 2007HailCactus-no account filed
April 2006HailCactus-no account filed
May 2006HailCactus-no account filed
June 2006Thunderstorm WindCactus-no account filed
May 2005HailCactus-no account filed
May 2004HailCactus-no account filed
June 2004HailCactus-no account filed
June 2004HailCactus-no account filed
May 2002HailCactus-no account filed
May 2002HailCactus-no account filed
September 1999Thunderstorm WindCactus-no account filed
June 1996HailCactus-no account filed
June 1994HailCactus-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Moore 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
Etter1.8 miles6
Bryden3.2 miles6
Sheerin Junction6.6 miles6
Machovec7.5 miles6
Sheerin8.5 miles6
Sunray9.7 miles6
Dumas13.0 miles6
Stallwitz Lake16.7 miles6

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 CactusAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q981950The 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 1353497. 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.