Cottonwood, Texas
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1931 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Cross Plains census division. It lies in ZIP code area 76443. The Survey maps it on the Cross Plains North quadrangle.
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 8 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1931 USGS Baird quadrangle1:125000
- 1932 USGS Baird quadrangle1:125000
- 1954 USGS Abilene quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Abilene quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS Cross Plains North quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Abilene quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
66 since 2005Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 66 fires within 5 miles of Cottonwood between 2005 and 2020, burning about 12,912 acres in total. 2 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/undetermined | 26 |
| Debris and open burning | 19 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 16 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 September 2008 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 4 August 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | REKINDLE |
| 4 August 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.5 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | TONY STEELE |
| 31 August 2013 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | CR 440 |
| 26 August 2016 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | SNELL |
| 22 August 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | BAR DITCH |
| 22 August 2009 | Natural | 4.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | JOHN ESTES RANCH |
| 2 August 2012 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | TATUM |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
12 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cottonwood in 12 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 7 hail, 3 tornado, 2 thunderstorm wind. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cottonwood | $1,000 | Winds estimated at 60 mph downed tree limbs in the southeast section of Callahan County. |
| April 2025 | Hail | Cottonwood | - | Public reported ping pong ball size hail. |
| September 2023 | Hail | Cottonwood | - | Public reported ping pong ball size hail. |
| March 2002 | Tornado (F0) | Cottonwood | - | Spotters reported a brief tornado touchdown in an open field just northwest of Cottonwood in extreme eastern Callahan County. |
| September 2001 | Tornado (F1) | Cottonwood | - | A sheriff deputy reported a brief tornado touchdown northwest of Cottonwood, knocking down several trees. |
| May 1994 | Tornado (F0) | Cottonwood | - | Storm spotters reported a brief touchdown., |
| May 2008 | Hail | Cottonwood | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cottonwood | - | no account filed |
| April 2003 | Hail | Cottonwood | - | no account filed |
| September 1996 | Hail | Cottonwood | - | no account filed |
| June 1995 | Hail | Cottonwood | - | no account filed |
| June 1995 | Hail | Cottonwood | - | no account filed |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atwell | 5.3 miles | 9 | |
| Cross Plains | 5.9 miles | 8 | |
| Rowden | 7.4 miles | 9 | |
| Admiral | 8.0 miles | 9 | |
| Belle Plain | 11.0 miles | 9 | |
| Putnam | 11.4 miles | 9 | |
| Jayell | 14.0 miles | 8 | |
| Baird | 16.4 miles | 9 |
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 Cottonwood | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5175783 | 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 1378167. 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.





