O'Brien, Texas
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Rochester census division. It lies in ZIP code area 79539. The Survey maps it on the Knox City quadrangle. 91 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,575 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresO'Brien fell from 106 to 91 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 | 106 | |
| 2020 | 91 | -15 (-14%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 7 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.
- 1954 USGS Wichita Falls quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Wichita Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS Knox City quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Haskell quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
17 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 17 fires within 5 miles of O'Brien between 2006 and 2018, burning about 122 acres in total. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 13 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Natural | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 September 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | KNOX CITY GRASS FIRE |
| 23 August 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 14-0823A |
| 20 July 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 17 June 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 2163 GRASS FIRE |
| 3 May 2006 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 23 May 2013 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | KC GRASS FIRE X2 |
| 4 March 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | COTTON FIELD |
| 22 March 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | ROCHESTER CEMETERY |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
8 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names O'Brien in 8 storm reports between 1996 and 2021: 3 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 1 flash 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | O Brien | $2,000 | no account filed |
| May 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | O Brien | - | Damaging thunderstorm winds damaged an outbuilding and blew down a grain house on the south side of O'Brien near State Highway 6. |
| May 2015 | Tornado (EF0) | O Brien | - | A trained spotter reported a tornado through the Haskell County Sheriff's office about 3.7 miles east of O'Brien. |
| May 2009 | Tornado (EF0) | O Brien | - | An tornado briefly touched down in an open field as reported by Haskell County Law Enforcement. |
| May 2007 | Flash Flood | O Brien | - | Texas Department of Transportation closed Farm to Market Roads 2136 between highway 617 and 2229 due to flooding. There was also water reported over 380 between Highway 6 and 2407. |
| May 2015 | Hail | O Brien | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Hail | O Brien | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Hail | O Brien | - | 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.
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 O'Brien | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q977438 | 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 1364256. 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.



