BlockBefore

Merit, Texas

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1930 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Celeste census division. It lies in ZIP code area 75442. The Survey maps it on the Farmersville quadrangle. It stands 650 feet above sea level.

Merit within Hunt County

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 10 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

164 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 164 fires within 5 miles of Merit between 2004 and 2020, burning about 1,117 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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 burning101
Missing data/not specified/undetermined39
Equipment and vehicle use16
Arson/incendiarism2
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Recreation and ceremony1
Railroad operations and maintenance1
Fireworks1
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
8 September 2014Debris and open burning4.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceCR1076 FIRE
8 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined80 acresTexas A & M Forest Service2011073
8 September 2011Debris and open burning30 acresTexas A & M Forest Service19000 CR 656 - 11076624
4 September 2016Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceGRASS FIRE CR 1107 AND 1128
28 September 2010Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Service4349 FM 903 HUNT CO FIRE
24 September 2016Debris and open burning1.5 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceCROSS TIE
24 September 2013Fireworks22 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceBLACK GATE FIRE
23 September 2016Debris and open burning3.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceFM 903 AND CR 1132 BRUSH /GRAAS FIRE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hunt County

Storms near this place

8 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Merit in 8 storm reports between 1996 and 2019: 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 flood. 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
May 1998Thunderstorm WindMerit$15,000Thunderstorm winds damaged roofs and downed trees.
May 2009Thunderstorm WindMerit$2,000Trees were down in Merit.
October 2010HailMerit$1,000Nickel size hail increased to quarter size hail in Merit.
February 2019Thunderstorm WindMerit-Emergency management reported a tree blown onto a car in the city of Merit, TX.
August 2017FloodMerit-Hunt County Sheriff's Department reported water over County Roads 1123 and 1124, making them impassable.
March 2000HailMerit-no account filed
April 1997Thunderstorm WindMerit-no account filed
February 1996HailMerit-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hunt 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
Wagner4.3 miles7
Floyd5.2 miles7
Lane6.0 miles7
Kingston6.4 miles6
Pleasant Valley6.5 miles9
Kellogg7.2 miles7
Celeste7.3 miles6
Clinton8.3 miles6

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 MeritAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q10975133The 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 1341384. 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.