Los Velas, Texas

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1949 and the latest in 2002. It stands in the Rio Grande City census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78582. It stands on Los Olmos Creek. The Survey maps it on the Rio Grande City South quadrangle.

Los Velas within Starr County

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 11 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.

1949 USGS Mc Allen quadrangle1:250000
1954 USGS McAllen quadrangle1:250000
1956 USGS Escobares quadrangle1:62500
1957 USGS Mc Allen quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1962 USGS McAllen quadrangle1:250000
1965 USGS Rio Grande City South quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1983 USGS Mc Allen quadrangle1:250000
1992 USGS Mc Allen quadrangle1:100000
2002 USGS Rio Grande City South quadrangle1:24000

Fires near this place

364 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 364 fires within 5 miles of Los Velas between 1996 and 2020, burning about 1,710 acres in total. None started naturally. 22 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
Debris and open burning	202
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	130
Arson/incendiarism	22
Equipment and vehicle use	7
Misuse of fire by a minor	3

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
9 September 2016	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	86 OLD CASITA RD
8 September 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	not named
7 September 2005	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	not named
6 September 2018	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	OLD CASITA RD.
6 September 2015	Debris and open burning	4.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	6154 FM 1430 RD
6 September 2011	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	GRASS FIRE
3 September 2020	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	10 PARROT LN.
3 September 2018	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	W. HINOJOSA ST.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
El Chaparral Number 2 Colonia	0.9 miles	11
El Chaparral Number 1 Colonia	1.1 miles	11
Santa Rosa Colonia	1.2 miles	11
Tamez Colonia	1.2 miles	11
El Refugio Colonia	1.3 miles	11
Santa Cruz	1.3 miles	11
Rodriguez Number 2 Colonia	1.3 miles	11
El Refugio	1.3 miles	11

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.

Wikidata item Q122556341

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 1340635. 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.