BlockBefore

Fronton, Texas

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1949 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Roma-Los Saenz census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78584. It stands on Fronton Island. The Survey maps it on the Roma-Los Saenz West quadrangle. 172 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 200 feet above sea level.

Fronton within Starr County

Population over time

3 figures

Fronton fell from 599 to 172 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
2000599
2010180-419 (-70%)
2020172-8 (-4%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 9 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

92 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 92 fires within 5 miles of Fronton between 1999 and 2020, burning about 984 acres in total. None started naturally. 10 were 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/undetermined55
Debris and open burning22
Arson/incendiarism10
Equipment and vehicle use2
Smoking2
Railroad operations and maintenance1

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 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceDOLPHIN ST.
16 September 2005Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
9 August 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceSANTA MARIA RANCH RD.
6 August 2004Missing data/not specified/undetermined4.3 acresSouth Texas Refuge ComplexGAS WELL
4 August 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined50 acresLower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife RefugeARROYO RAMIREZ
4 August 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined90 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceFM 650
25 August 2012Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceROMA LANDFILL RD.
24 August 2009Debris and open burning80 acresLower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife RefugeBUGABOO

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Starr County

Storms near this place

4 since 2011

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Fronton in 4 storm reports between 2011 and 2025: 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail. 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
September 2011Thunderstorm WindFronton$10,000A small but severe thunderstorm, featuring a bow-shape on its front edge and containing small cores of microbursts, raced through southwest Starr County around 1030 PM CDT September 17th. One of those microbursts reached ground.||KRGV-TV-5 reported structural damage in the small community of Fronton (along the Rio Grande). Damage included at least two roofs torn off/peeled back, several fences blown down, power lines blown down, and numerous large mesquite and live oak limbs broken off trees.
May 2017Thunderstorm WindFronton$5,000Media reported portion of roof blown off of house in Fronton. Several trees were blown down as well. Time estimated via radar imagery.
May 2025HailFronton-There was a social media report of 1.5 inch diameter hail in Fronton, Texas (Starr County).
May 2017HailFronton-Public reported half dollar size hail in Fronton.

Every storm recorded in Starr 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
Guadalupe Guerra Colonia0.3 miles9
Sunset Colonia1.7 miles9
Campobello Colonia3.2 miles9
Campobello Number 2 Colonia3.2 miles9
Fronton Ranchettes Colonia3.3 miles9
Ramos Addition Number 1 Colonia3.3 miles9
Ramos Colonia3.4 miles9
Evergreen Colonia3.4 miles9

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 FrontonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q960055The 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 1336274. 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.