BlockRancho Viejo, Texas
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1930 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Brownsville census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78575. The Survey maps it on the Olmito quadrangle. 2,838 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 30 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresRancho Viejo grew from 2,437 to 2,838 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 | 2,437 | |
| 2020 | 2,838 | +401 (+16%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 15 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.
- 1930 USGS Barreda quadrangle1:24000
- 1936 USGS Barreda quadrangle1:31680
- 1936 USGS Olmito quadrangle1:31680
- 1945 USGS Olmito quadrangle1:31680
- 1953 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Olmito quadrangle1:24000, 5 printings
- 1956 USGS Port Isabel quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1992 USGS Harlingen quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
133 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 133 fires within 5 miles of Rancho Viejo between 1993 and 2020, burning about 1,411 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 13 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 burning | 60 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 43 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 13 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 1993 | Smoking | under an acre | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | RANCHITO2 |
| 3 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | RANCHITO E |
| 3 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 13 acres | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | RANCHITO W |
| 2 September 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | GRASS FIRE |
| 18 September 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | GRASS FIRE |
| 9 August 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | GRASS FIRE |
| 6 August 2004 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | LA ENCANTADA |
| 31 August 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5.0 acres | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | 1421 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
10 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rancho Viejo in 10 storm reports between 2001 and 2025: 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 2 heavy rain, 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2010 | Flash Flood | Rancho Viejo | $150,000 | Widespread urban flooding affected an area from west of Brownsville through Brownsville, Olmito, Los Fresnos, and near Bayview during the afternoon and into the overnight hours of June 30th and into July 1st (see July report for continuation of event). Much of the flash flooding, where water reached 3 feet or higher or threatened structures, occurred in typically poor drainage locations in all areas. ||Total rainfall for the entire event ranged from 8 to near 10 inches in the areas that tended to flood, with an estimated 5 to 7 inches occurring during and just prior to the significant flood impacts. Damage from freshwater flooding directly due to Alex was unknown as of this writing; a best estimate is provided. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rancho Viejo | $2,000 | Thunderstorm winds uprooted two large trees and broke several large limbs near the Rancho Viejo Country Club Golf Course and in nearby yards. |
| April 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rancho Viejo | $2,000 | NWS employee reported tree limbs blown down in Rancho Viejo. Wind gusts were estimated at 50 to 60 mph. A few minutes later, estimated gusts to 60 mph lifted a trampoline into and over a fence, and bent other fencing material in North Brownsville. |
| July 2010 | Flash Flood | Rancho Viejo | $500 | Widespread urban flooding affected an area from west of Brownsville through Brownsville, Olmito, Los Fresnos, and near Bayview during the afternoon and into the very early morning hours of July 1st (see June report for starting time of event). Much of the flash flooding, where water reached 3 feet or higher or threatened structures, occurred in typically poor drainage locations in all areas. ||Total rainfall for the entire event ranged from 8 to near 10 inches in the areas that tended to flood, with an estimated 5 to 7 inches occurring during and just prior to the significant flood impacts. Damage from freshwater flooding directly due to Alex was unknown as of this writing. For the July data, only a very small value is included, as the primary flood impacting rains fell on June 30th. |
| November 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rancho Viejo | - | A retired NWS Employee reported a tree and a large branch down. |
| May 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rancho Viejo | - | An NWS employee reported a tree trunk, approximately 18 inches in diameter, split in half. Estimated wind speed of 60 mph. |
| April 2008 | Heavy Rain | Rancho Viejo | - | Torrential thunderstorm rains fell generally between 430 and 7 PM across much of the Brownsville area, then were followed by steadier, locally heavy rains during the mid evening. Another round of lighter rains developed overnight. Storm totals ranged from 3 to 5 inches across the area, with the highest totals along a line from Rancho Viejo through Brownsville Airport, extending southeast to the Sabal Palm Audubon Center near the Rio Grande. Minor nuisance flooding was reported in poor drainage areas during the initial torrential rains, but, overall, the rain was welcome relief from drought conditions which had been dominant through most of the spring. |
| March 2007 | Heavy Rain | Rancho Viejo | - | A NWS employee reported 4.15 inches of rain in Rancho Viejo. |
| May 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Rancho Viejo | - | An airplane pilot and an emergency technician both sighted a tornado between San Benito and Rancho Viejo. |
| August 2003 | Flash Flood | Rancho Viejo | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olmito | 1.7 miles | 15 | |
| Cavazos | 3.1 miles | 15 | |
| Villa Cavazos Colonia | 3.1 miles | 15 | |
| Villa Cavazos | 3.1 miles | 15 | |
| Russelltown | 3.3 miles | 15 | |
| Ismael Montalvo Colonia Number 2 | 3.8 miles | 13 | |
| Esparza Colonia Number 1 | 3.8 miles | 13 | |
| Esparza Colonia Number 2 | 3.8 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 Rancho Viejo | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q979642 | 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 1388590. 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.