BlockBefore

Morita, Texas

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1941 and the latest in 1986. It stands in the Big Spring census division. The Survey maps it on the Natural Dam Lake quadrangle.

Morita within Howard County

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 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.

Fires near this place

115 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 115 fires within 5 miles of Morita between 2006 and 2020, burning about 6,217 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 3 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined54
Equipment and vehicle use28
Power generation/transmission/distribution15
Railroad operations and maintenance6
Smoking6
Arson/incendiarism3
Debris and open burning2
Natural1

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
30 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceMM 165 I-20
15 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceN 818
13 September 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined15 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
12 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceMM 165 I-20
11 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceMM 164 I-20
7 August 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceI20 MM 164
7 August 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceI20 MM 165
7 August 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceMM 168 I-20

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Howard County

Storms near this place

1 since 2016

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Morita in 1 storm report in 2016: 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2016Tornado (EF0)Morita-A thunderstorm moved across Howard County and produced a tornado near Big Spring. This tornado developed at around 6:51 pm CDT, approximately three miles south of the interstate, close to Farm-to-Market Road 818. This tornado was anticyclonic and moved slowly east and then northeast. With the help of radar imagery, it is estimated that the tornado lasted 8 minutes, while traveling a path just short of 2 miles. With the tornado remaining over open fields, the assessment team rated the tornado as an EF0. The width was estimated at 100 yards.

Every storm recorded in Howard 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
Lomax4.7 miles11
Elbow6.7 miles10
Webb Village7.6 miles12
South Haven8.1 miles12
Big Spring9.4 miles11
Fairview13.3 miles9
Ziler13.6 miles11
Knott15.1 miles9

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 Q122545939The 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 1378700. 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.