Karnes City, Texas
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Karnes City census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78118. The Survey maps it on the Karnes City quadrangle. 3,111 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 430 feet above sea level.
On record in Karnes City
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 2 records
Karnes County Courthouselisted 2010- John Ruckman Houselisted 1979
Population over time
2 figuresKarnes City grew from 3,042 to 3,111 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 3,042 | |
| 2020 | 3,111 | +69 (+2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 9 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.
- 1953 USGS Beeville quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Beeville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Karnes City quadrangle1:62500
- 1960 USGS Beeville quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Karnes City quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1985 USGS Goliad quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
170 since 2005Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 170 fires within 5 miles of Karnes City between 2005 and 2020, burning about 472 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 3 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/undetermined | 54 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 50 |
| Debris and open burning | 45 |
| Smoking | 7 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 5 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Natural | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 September 2008 | Equipment and vehicle use | 10 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 4 September 2008 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 26 September 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 24 September 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | COLE ORSZULAK |
| 22 September 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 18 September 2014 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | BILL CAMPBELL |
| 12 September 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | MARATHON FM99-2 |
| 10 September 2006 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
22 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Karnes City in 22 storm reports between 1993 and 2023: 7 hail, 6 flash flood, 5 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2001 | Tornado (F1) | Karnes City | $120,000 | A second and more intense Karnes County tornado touched down west of Karnes City near the Wilson County line. Rated F1, it destroyed a trailer, a metal barn, and literally hundreds of trees as it moved northeast for just over two miles. |
| May 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Karnes City | $80,000 | no account filed |
| April 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Karnes City | $20,000 | Severe winds blew over a shed and knocked over trees between Karnes City and Panna Maria. |
| May 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Karnes City | $10,000 | Severe winds damaged a mobile home near Karnes City. |
| April 1995 | Hail | Karnes City | $3,000 | Hail up to the size of quarters covered the ground around Karnes City, causing extensive damage to corn crops in the area. A few homes had windows broken due to the hail. |
| October 1994 | Tornado (F0) | Karnes City | $2,000 | Damage to a fence and some trees due to a tornado were reported by Sheriffs Department. |
| May 2023 | Flash Flood | Karnes City | - | Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding. TXDoT reported FM 1353 was flooded south of Karnes City. |
| May 2015 | Flash Flood | Karnes City | - | Highway 181 south of farm to market road 1144 in Karnes City was closed due to water over the roadway. |
| May 2014 | Flash Flood | Karnes City | - | Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that caused flash flooding in Karnes County. The roads were closed at the intersection of FM 99 and US 181 on the west side of Karnes City, and farther northeast FM 792 at TX 80 was closed near the San Antonio River. |
| May 2014 | Flash Flood | Karnes City | - | Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that caused flash flooding closing County Road 1353 south of Karnes City. |
| May 2013 | Funnel Cloud | Karnes City | - | A thunderstorm produced a funnel cloud. |
| March 2012 | Flash Flood | Karnes City | - | Slow moving thunderstorms produced heavy rain which caused flash flooding and closed Highway 181 at Calvert Avenue in Karnes City. |
| January 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Karnes City | - | A thunderstorm produced wind gusts estimated at 60 mph which caused damage in and around Karnes City and Kenedy. The Karnes County emergency manager reported trees toppled over and roofs blown off carports. |
| July 2004 | Flash Flood | Karnes City | - | Between 1 and 3 inches of rain fell between Karnes City and Kenedy in the late evening. Flash flooding closed parts of FM99 and FM792 just before midnight. |
| November 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Karnes City | - | A small tornado, rated F0, touched down briefly in an open area near Karnes City. No damage was indicated. |
| April 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Karnes City | - | Strong winds blew down tree limbs and knocked out power lines. |
| April 1993 | Hail | Karnes City | - | The Department of Public Safety reported golf ball-size hail in Karnes City. |
| March 2007 | Hail | Karnes City | - | no account filed |
| November 2004 | Hail | Karnes City | - | no account filed |
| March 2000 | Hail | Karnes City | - | no account filed |
| February 1998 | Hail | Karnes City | - | no account filed |
| February 1998 | Hail | Karnes City | - | 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.
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 Karnes City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q427602 | 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 1360493. 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.





