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El Campo, Texas

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the El Campo census division. It lies in ZIP code area 77437. The Survey maps it on the El Campo quadrangle. 12,350 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 105 feet above sea level.

El Campo within Wharton County

Population over time

2 figures

El Campo grew from 11,602 to 12,350 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
201011,602
202012,350+748 (+6%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 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

49 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 49 fires within 5 miles of El Campo between 2008 and 2010, burning about 426 acres in total. None 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
Debris and open burning21
Missing data/not specified/undetermined14
Equipment and vehicle use9
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Smoking1
Arson/incendiarism1

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
6 September 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
7 August 2008Debris and open burning2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
4 August 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined4.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Service1700 S. MEADOW LN.
24 August 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Service1200 W. LOOP
24 August 2008Debris and open burning4.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
19 August 2009Misuse of fire by a minor1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Service810 LILLY ST.
5 July 2009Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Service1000 MONSERETTE ST.
4 July 2009Misuse of fire by a minor1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Service1500 BRAVO ST.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Wharton County

Storms near this place

40 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names El Campo in 40 storm reports between 1996 and 2026: 16 thunderstorm wind, 9 hail, 7 funnel cloud, 5 tornado. The reports record 6 injuries. 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
August 2002Thunderstorm WindEl Campo3 hurt, $20,000Mobile home overturned.
November 2003Tornado (F0)El Campo2 hurt, $8,000Tornado sighted by personnel in a large plant nursery. Employees took cover and F0 tornado blew out two windows of an on-site office building. Two minor injuries.
July 2003Thunderstorm WindEl Campo1 hurtMan injured in Hillje while trying to cover a grain trailer with a tarp when wind gust blew him down.
March 2002HailEl Campo$50,000Emergency Management and Sheriff witnessed Baseball sized Hail at State Highway 59 and FM 1163, with one inch hail covering the ground.
July 2000Thunderstorm WindEl Campo$50,000Awning of gas station blown off with car overturned.
April 1997Flash FloodEl Campo$50,000no account filed
August 1996Tornado (F0)El Campo$40,000no account filed
August 1999Thunderstorm WindEl Campo$25,000Power poles down between Nada and Crescent.
April 2004HailEl Campo$20,000Golf ball-size hail in El Campo.
February 1998Thunderstorm WindEl Campo$20,00025 powerpoles blown down, roof ripped off mobile home, and a car port was destroyed.
June 1997Tornado (F0)El Campo$20,000House on Thrift St. moved 4 feet off concrete piers. Bard sustained minor damage in Pierce.
May 2009LightningEl Campo$15,000A lightning strike produced significant damage to a home in El Campo. The lightning struck a tree in the backayrd and traveled along the ground to the home. The sheetrock was destroyed along two interior walls of the home.
June 2000Thunderstorm WindEl Campo$15,000Power pole and several trees down.
April 2004HailEl Campo$10,000Penny-size hail in El Campo.
December 2002Thunderstorm WindEl Campo$10,000Wind damage to the roof of a home in the New Taiton area.
August 1998Thunderstorm WindEl Campo$10,000Trees and powerpoles blown down. Structural damage to mobile homes.
June 1998HailEl Campo$10,000no account filed
February 2026Thunderstorm WindEl Campo$8,000Broadcast media reported that multiple trees were downed, and various sheds were overturned or blown away in El Campo.
March 2007Thunderstorm WindEl Campo$8,000Large tree down across a small residential porch structure.
March 2001HailEl Campo$5,000no account filed
June 1996Thunderstorm WindEl Campo$5,000no account filed
March 1998HailEl Campo$3,000no account filed
February 1998HailEl Campo$3,000no account filed
November 2003Tornado (F0)El Campo$1,000Storage shed destroyed with its tin debris field spread to the northeast 1/4 mile.
December 2002HailEl Campo$1,0000.75 inch hail in El Campo.
April 2024Thunderstorm WindEl Campo-A few trees were downed.
April 2019Thunderstorm WindEl Campo-There were trees downed with two of them blocking roadways.
February 2017Thunderstorm WindEl Campo-Power lines were downed near the intersection of West Norris Street and West Loop Street.
April 2015HailEl Campo-Dime sized hail was reported in the El Campo area.
April 2015Thunderstorm WindEl Campo-Thunderstorm winds downed a tree in El Campo.
March 2006Funnel CloudEl Campo-Sighted on FM 2765.
April 2004Tornado (F0)El Campo-Sighted between El Campo and Danevang.
July 2004Funnel CloudEl Campo-Spotted on Highway 59.
September 2004Funnel CloudEl Campo-Spotted at FM 2546 and Hwy 71.
November 2004Flash FloodEl Campo-Town streets flooded.
August 1999Thunderstorm WindEl Campo-An easterly wave combined with extreme heating to produce severe weather across the upper Texas coastal area on the 31st. A cluster of severe thunderstorms formed over Chambers and eastern Harris counties, and evolved into a bow echo formation as they moved southwestward into Harris County. The bow echo produced widespread wind damage in the downtown, Galleria, and southwest portions of Houston between 400 and 500 PM CDT. The bow echo then pushed into northern Ft. Bend County producing wind damage there before weakening slightly. Severe thunderstorms continued southwestward into southern Ft. Bend and Wharton counties during the early evening hours.
June 2004Funnel CloudEl Campo-no account filed
September 2004Funnel CloudEl Campo-no account filed
September 2001Funnel CloudEl Campo-no account filed
September 2001Funnel CloudEl Campo-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Wharton 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
Pierce4.7 miles8
Hillje5.1 miles8
Plainview6.4 miles8
Jones Creek6.6 miles8
Mackay8.1 miles9
New Taiton8.7 miles8
Hahn8.9 miles8
Louise9.2 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 El CampoAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q969474The 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 1356861. 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.