Riesel, Texas
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Mart census division. It lies in ZIP code area 76682. The Survey maps it on the Riesel quadrangle. 1,062 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 505 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresRiesel grew from 1,007 to 1,062 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 | 1,007 | |
| 2020 | 1,062 | +55 (+5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 8 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 Waco quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Waco quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Riesel quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1985 USGS Marlin quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
77 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 77 fires within 5 miles of Riesel between 2003 and 2020, burning about 607 acres in total. 2 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 | 27 |
| Debris and open burning | 25 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 17 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 3 |
| Natural | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 September 2014 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | MCCRAY FIRE |
| 1 September 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 9 August 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 7 August 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | BALLMAN RD COMBINE FIRE |
| 7 August 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | NOWASKI-B |
| 7 August 2003 | Debris and open burning | 115 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | CENTRAL TX - 29 |
| 6 August 2006 | Natural | 25 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | SUNSET ROAD FIRE |
| 21 August 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | 1 MILE LN @ STATE HWY 164 GRASS FIRE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
8 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Riesel in 8 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 1 tornado, 1 hail. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riesel | $50,000 | Central Texas Media reported roofs off of houses in Riesel. |
| May 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riesel | $50,000 | The Masonic Lodge in Riesel was unroofed, and a mobile home was destroyed. Many trees were blown down. |
| March 2007 | Flash Flood | Riesel | $20,000 | Part of a bridge washed away on Possum Trot Road and left a large sinkhole half the width of the road. One other road was washed away, and several others were flooded. |
| September 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riesel | $15,000 | Trees were blown down and a barn was destroyed by high thunderstorm winds. The underpinning of several mobile homes was blown off. |
| May 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riesel | $500 | A trained spotter measured a 57 MPH wind gust and witnessed trees uprooted in the city of Riesel, TX from thunderstorm winds. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Riesel | - | Report from mPING: Quarter (1.00 in.). |
| March 2007 | Tornado (EF0) | Riesel | - | A tornado was spotted in Riesel. It touched down briefly and caused no damage. |
| February 1997 | Flash Flood | Riesel | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blackland | 2.0 miles | 8 | |
| Lake Creek | 2.8 miles | 8 | |
| Hallsburg | 4.7 miles | 8 | |
| Harrison | 5.2 miles | 8 | |
| Battle | 5.7 miles | 8 | |
| Neale | 6.3 miles | 18 | |
| Mart | 6.7 miles | 8 | |
| Downsville | 7.7 miles | 15 |
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 Riesel | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q788150 | 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 1366451. 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.



