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Merle, Texas

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1914 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the Old River census division. It lies in ZIP code area 77879. The Survey maps it on the Snook quadrangle.

Merle within Burleson County

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 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

173 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 173 fires within 5 miles of Merle between 1998 and 2020, burning about 1,552 acres in total. 2 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 burning109
Missing data/not specified/undetermined40
Equipment and vehicle use16
Recreation and ceremony2
Arson/incendiarism2
Natural2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
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
9 September 2019Natural1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceGRASS FIRE
9 September 2019Natural1.5 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceSNOOK MUTUAL AID
7 September 2013Debris and open burningunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceCR 201
6 September 2014Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceSNOOK MUTUAL AID
5 September 2020Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceBURN BAN VIOLATION
5 September 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreTexas A & M Forest Service1962
30 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Service10231 FM.1361
30 September 2017Debris and open burning5.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Service3121

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Burleson County

Storms near this place

5 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Merle in 5 storm reports between 2009 and 2020: 4 hail, 1 lightning. 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
August 2013LightningMerle$5,000A lightning strike caused a structural fire near the intersection of CR 278 and FM 1361.
April 2020HailMerle-There was penny to quarter size hail near the intersection of Highway 60 and FM 3058.
March 2018HailMerle-Quarter to golf ball sized hail was observed.
May 2017HailMerle-Quarter sized hail was reported.
April 2009HailMerle-Nickel sized hail was observed along FM 60 between Lyons and Snook.

Every storm recorded in Burleson 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
Snook2.7 miles9
Center Line4.3 miles8
Wilcox4.4 miles9
Beaver Creek5.3 miles8
Chances Store6.3 miles11
Scofield6.7 miles10
Lyons6.9 miles8
Tunis7.4 miles8

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1380181. 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.