Port Mansfield, Texas
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1952 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the San Perlita census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78598. It lies near El Sauz Island. The Survey maps it on the Port Mansfield quadrangle. 319 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresPort Mansfield grew from 226 to 319 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 | 226 | |
| 2020 | 319 | +93 (+41%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 11 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.
- 1952 USGS Port Mansfield quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1952 USGS South of Potrero Lopeno quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Port Isabel quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Port Mansfield quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
6 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Port Mansfield between 2002 and 2014, burning about 673 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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 | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 July 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | GRASS FIRE |
| 17 June 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | WILDLAND FIRE |
| 10 March 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 2.0 acres | South Texas Refuge Complex | MONSEES |
| 11 November 2004 | Smoking | 50 acres | South Texas Refuge Complex | PORT MANSFIELD |
| 17 January 2014 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | JOHN DOE |
| 11 January 2012 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 200 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | BRUSH FIRE |
Storms near this place
13 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Port Mansfield in 13 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 5 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2020 | Flash Flood | Port Mansfield | $5,980,000 | Reports of high flowing water blocking passage along SR-186 just west of Port Mansfield were received during the evening of July 25th, when feeder bands into the eastern semicircle of then-Tropical Storm Hanna dropped an additional 4 to 8 inches of rainfall into central and eastern Willacy County. Other flooding was noted in poor drainage locations of Raymondville, and there was an unknown amount of field flooding in eastern Willacy County due to an estimated 11 to 13 inches of rainfall through the duration of the event, which began during the mid afternoon of July 25th. ||Water depths of 2 to 3 feet were likely in some areas, though specifics were unknown. A known poor drainage location at an apartment complex in south Raymondville had up to 3 feet of water depth in parking areas, blocking access to the facility. Other flood related damage in central Willacy County was minimal. In Port Mansfield, where nearly 15 inches of rain fell, including 9 inches in initial inner eyewall bands on July 25th, sandy soil and antecedent dry conditions kept flooding to a minimum. ||Crop damage from flooding rain was significant in Willacy County, including a heavy loss of cotton lint (or bolls) which were destroyed by the flood. Estimates suggest that $36 million in cotton crop was lost from Hanna's flooding rains.||Property damage from flood waters was calculated using NCEI's total dollar damage estimate (divided among the affected counties by local storm data experts). Total property damage from flood waters for Willacy County was $5.98 million. |
| March 2012 | Flash Flood | Port Mansfield | $2,000,000 | Runoff from storms in Hidalgo County was moving so swiftly that it caused the collapse of a weir in Willacy County. Estimates for repair of the structure are around $2 million. |
| July 2021 | Flash Flood | Port Mansfield | $10,000 | A Co-Op Observer reported 5.8 inches of rain occurring between 10:30 AM and 2:00 PM, along with minor flooding in the Port Mansfield area. One house also experienced flooding. |
| April 2025 | Flood | Port Mansfield | - | Torrential rains fell in just a few hours across Port Mansfield between 9 AM and 1230 PM CST (10 AM and 130 PM CDT), with the cooperative observer (Harbormaster) reporting 6.83 during this time. While the town's generally decent drainage prevented a significant flood, there was minor street flooding reported in town (water of unknown depth) during the peak of the rainfall. |
| April 2017 | Hail | Port Mansfield | - | Willacy County EM reported golf ball size hail in Port Mansfield. |
| October 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Port Mansfield | - | The Port Mansfield Harbor Master reported wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour were measured during a strong thunderstorm which moved through Port Mansfield in the early afternoon. Duration of gusts estimated by proxy with similar conditions as the line passed Laguna Madre-side locations farther north. |
| February 2008 | Hail | Port Mansfield | - | The husband of a CO-OP observer reported hail fell at their residence near the center of town on Copano Road in Port Mansfield. The hail occurred when an isolated thunderstorm moved through the area. The thunderstorm was triggered by a cold front moving through Deep South Texas. |
| July 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Port Mansfield | - | A CO-OP observer reported 62 mph wind gusts which knocked large limbs off some trees and blew a shed on a pier into the harbor. |
| October 2002 | Funnel Cloud | Port Mansfield | - | Funnel cloud was observed by the Harbormaster just southwest of Port Mansfield. |
| October 2002 | Hail | Port Mansfield | - | The Harbormaster in Port Mansfield reported 1.75 inch hail. |
| May 1999 | Hail | Port Mansfield | - | no account filed |
| April 1999 | Hail | Port Mansfield | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Port Mansfield | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Perlita | 12.0 miles | 12 | |
| Willamar | 12.3 miles | 9 | |
| Porfirio | 14.3 miles | 9 | |
| Santa Monica | 15.8 miles | 11 | |
| Los Coyotes | 17.5 miles | 9 | |
| Yturria | 18.4 miles | 13 | |
| Lisa Colonia | 18.5 miles | 13 | |
| Benitez Colonia | 18.6 miles | 13 |
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 Port Mansfield | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q977267 | 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 1344369. 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.






