BlockBefore

Orchard, Texas

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1950 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Orchard-Kendleton census division. It lies in ZIP code area 77464. The Survey maps it on the Orchard quadrangle. 313 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 125 feet above sea level.

Orchard within Fort Bend County

Population over time

3 figures

Orchard fell from 408 to 313 between 2000 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.

YearPeople Change
2000408
2010352-56 (-14%)
2020313-39 (-11%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 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

3 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Orchard between 2009 and 2011, burning about 254 acres in total. None 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/undetermined2
Debris and open burning1

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
17 May 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined4.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceGRASS FIRE
17 February 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined150 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceGRASS FIRE
13 January 2009Debris and open burning100 acresTexas A & M Forest Service09-0000014

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Fort Bend County

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Orchard: 3 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Sulfur, Halite, Limestone, Ultra Pure. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Orchard Dome MineSulfur, Halite, Limestone, Ultra PurePast Producer1929, 1938, 1970
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Fort Bend County

Storms near this place

8 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Orchard in 8 storm reports between 1999 and 2019: 5 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 funnel cloud. 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 2004Thunderstorm WindOrchard$35,000Report of large tree limbs down and structural damage to a near one ton fort.
May 2007Thunderstorm WindOrchard$25,000Reports of significant damage to a mobile home, a barn blown over, and power poles blown down.
February 1999HailOrchard$10,000no account filed
June 2019Thunderstorm WindOrchard$7,000There was roof damage to a home.
September 2011Thunderstorm WindOrchard$5,000Severe thunderstorm winds downed numerous trees and power lines in and around Orchard and Simonton. Some car damage was reported from these storms.
April 2003HailOrchard$2,000no account filed
April 2009Funnel CloudOrchard-A funnel cloud was sighted and reported to persist for approximately two minutes.
May 2000Thunderstorm WindOrchard-At least 12,000 acres of crops destroyed by hail and high winds.

Every storm recorded in Fort Bend 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
Tavener4.5 miles10
Simonton5.2 miles9
Pleasant Hill5.4 miles9
Weston Lakes5.7 miles9
Fulshear7.0 miles9
McHattie7.8 miles9
Beasley7.9 miles9
Foster8.0 miles10

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 OrchardAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q981681The 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 1343307. 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.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

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.