Mercedes, Texas
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 2002. It stands in the Southeast Hidalgo census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78570. The Survey maps it on the Mercedes quadrangle. 16,258 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 69 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresMercedes grew from 15,570 to 16,258 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 | 15,570 | |
| 2020 | 16,258 | +688 (+4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 10 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 Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Mercedes quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1956 USGS Port Isabel quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1992 USGS Harlingen quadrangle1:100000
- 2002 USGS Mercedes quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
89 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 89 fires within 5 miles of Mercedes between 1994 and 2017, burning about 575 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 31 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 | 41 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 31 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Other causes | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 September 2011 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | DIAMOND FIRE |
| 12 September 2011 | Debris and open burning | 13 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 11-675 |
| 9 August 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | 1015 |
| 29 August 2006 | Smoking | 2.0 acres | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | SMOKEY JOE'S |
| 24 August 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | CORNER |
| 23 August 2004 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | 2556 |
| 23 August 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 30 acres | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | LA FERIA |
| 23 August 2004 | Smoking | 3.0 acres | South Texas Refuge Complex | 9 MILE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
14 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Mercedes in 14 storm reports between 1998 and 2021: 6 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 2 heavy rain, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2021 | Flash Flood | Mercedes | $100,000 | Report received via Broadcast Media of water completely covering lanes and shoulder on I-2/US-83 Eastbound near Mercedes. Lanes were closed as a result. Multiple water rescues eventually were needed. Video was also received via social media of water rising up to homes in the Mercedes area. |
| August 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mercedes | $40,000 | Two poorly constructed mobile homes were destroyed. One home had the roof removed and walls were collapsed. |
| June 2005 | Tornado (F0) | Mercedes | $10,000 | A quick-moving F0 tornado was reported by law enforcement in Mercedes. The tornado uprooted trees, one of which fell on a home, and knocked down one utility pole. |
| May 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mercedes | $5,000 | Numerous reports received via social media of tree damage and tree branches down on vehicles near Mercedes. Time was estimated via radar and based on NWS Storm Survey on damage from Donna to just east of Weslaco. |
| May 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mercedes | $2,000 | Mercedes Police Department reported a window blown out at the outlet mall and a palm tree blown down on Dawson Street. |
| July 2021 | Flash Flood | Mercedes | - | Per public reports, numerous portions of a Frontage Road in Mercedes were flooded. |
| May 2015 | Heavy Rain | Mercedes | - | Mercedes Police Department reported 6 to 8 inches of water at the intersections of Business 83 and Indiana and Business 83 and Washington. |
| April 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mercedes | - | Mercedes Police Department reported 10 to 12 power lines down and 15 to 20 trees down across the city of Mercedes. |
| September 2007 | Tornado (EF0) | Mercedes | - | Mercedes police reported a weak tornado touched down briefly toppling two or three trees near Texas and Tenth Streets in the city. Numerous callers reported seeing a funnel cloud in the Mercedes area. |
| September 2003 | Flash Flood | Mercedes | - | Flash flooding of city streets was reported by the Mercedes Police Department due to heavy rains. |
| September 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mercedes | - | Strong thunderstorm winds downed trees and damaged power lines, resulting in loss of power to residents. |
| October 1998 | Heavy Rain | Mercedes | - | Three to six inches of rain reported between Donna and La Feria. |
| March 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mercedes | - | no account filed |
| February 1998 | Hail | Mercedes | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colonia Garza | 0.5 miles | 10 | |
| Colonia George | 1.2 miles | 10 | |
| Colonia Victoriana | 1.2 miles | 10 | |
| Eastland Park Colonia | 1.4 miles | 10 | |
| Boyd Colonia Number 1 | 1.5 miles | 10 | |
| C A Conner Colonia | 1.5 miles | 10 | |
| Valle de Palmas Number 1 Colonia | 1.8 miles | 10 | |
| Lorenzana Colonia | 1.8 miles | 10 |
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 Mercedes | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q979362 | 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 1341366. 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.






