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Matagorda, Texas

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1951 and the latest in 1974. It stands in the Matagorda-Sargent census division. It lies in ZIP code area 77457. It lies near Baxter Island. The Survey maps it on the Matagorda quadrangle. 313 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 7 feet above sea level.

Matagorda within Matagorda County

On record in Matagorda

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

Population over time

2 figures

Matagorda fell from 503 to 313 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
2010503
2020313-190 (-38%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 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

16 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 16 fires within 5 miles of Matagorda between 2018 and 2020, burning about 96 acres in total. None 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
Debris and open burning7
Missing data/not specified/undetermined6
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Equipment and vehicle use1
Smoking1

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
13 September 2020Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceGRASS FIRE COUNTY DUMP
30 August 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceGRASS FIRE
17 August 2018Power generation/transmission/distribution1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceTROPICAL MANIAC PALM TREE FIRE
16 August 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceGRASS FIRE
16 August 2019Equipment and vehicle use2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceLEVEE GRASS FIRE
13 August 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceGRASS FIRE
4 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceICW GRASS FIRE
26 July 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceRIVER BEND RD GRASS FIRE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Matagorda County

Storms near this place

10 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Matagorda in 10 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 4 flash flood, 2 funnel cloud, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. 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
June 2007LightningMatagorda1 hurtA 52 year old male was struck by lightning and injured while lying on the beach a few miles southwest of the Colorado River mouth.
September 2003Flash FloodMatagorda$30,000Flooding in and around Matagorda, three homes flooded on South 60.
October 1996Flash FloodMatagorda$15,000no account filed
May 2001Tornado (F0)Matagorda$10,000Army Corps of Engineers reported a large waterspout moved onshore near the Matagorda Locks and lifted trees.
May 2012Thunderstorm WindMatagorda$5,000Trees were blown over in a residential neighborhood in Matagorda.
May 2024Thunderstorm WindMatagorda-Wind gust occurred at the East Matagorda TCOON site.
July 2008Funnel CloudMatagorda-The outer rain bands of Hurricane Dolly produced a funnel cloud that was sighted close to the intersection of the Colorado River and the Intracoastal Waterway.
July 2008Funnel CloudMatagorda-The funnel cloud was sighted just west of the intersection of the Colorado River and the Intracoastal Waterway.
July 2007Flash FloodMatagorda-SH 60 near Matagorda, along with secondary roads off of FM 521, in the southern part of the county are impassable due to water over the roadways.
June 2006Flash FloodMatagorda-Highway 60 was impassable due to flood waters.

Every storm recorded in Matagorda 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
Gulf4.5 miles9
Gulf Hill5.0 miles8
Citrus Grove8.3 miles8
Wadsworth9.9 miles8
Simpsonville10.5 miles8
Tin Top10.5 miles8
Collegeport11.3 miles9
Chinquapin11.3 miles7

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 MatagordaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q982375The 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 1362277. 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.