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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.

Riesel within McLennan County

Population over time

2 figures

Riesel 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.

YearPeople Change
20101,007
20201,062+55 (+5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 8 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

77 since 2003

Regional 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/undetermined27
Debris and open burning25
Equipment and vehicle use17
Power generation/transmission/distribution3
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Natural2

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
26 September 2014Power generation/transmission/distribution2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceMCCRAY FIRE
1 September 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
9 August 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
7 August 2009Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceBALLMAN RD COMBINE FIRE
7 August 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceNOWASKI-B
7 August 2003Debris and open burning115 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceCENTRAL TX - 29
6 August 2006Natural25 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceSUNSET ROAD FIRE
21 August 2010Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreTexas A & M Forest Service1 MILE LN @ STATE HWY 164 GRASS FIRE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in McLennan County

Storms near this place

8 since 1994

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 2020Thunderstorm WindRiesel$50,000Central Texas Media reported roofs off of houses in Riesel.
May 1994Thunderstorm WindRiesel$50,000The Masonic Lodge in Riesel was unroofed, and a mobile home was destroyed. Many trees were blown down.
March 2007Flash FloodRiesel$20,000Part 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 2000Thunderstorm WindRiesel$15,000Trees were blown down and a barn was destroyed by high thunderstorm winds. The underpinning of several mobile homes was blown off.
May 2019Thunderstorm WindRiesel$500A trained spotter measured a 57 MPH wind gust and witnessed trees uprooted in the city of Riesel, TX from thunderstorm winds.
May 2024HailRiesel-Report from mPING: Quarter (1.00 in.).
March 2007Tornado (EF0)Riesel-A tornado was spotted in Riesel. It touched down briefly and caused no damage.
February 1997Flash FloodRiesel-no account filed

Every storm recorded in McLennan 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
Blackland2.0 miles8
Lake Creek2.8 miles8
Hallsburg4.7 miles8
Harrison5.2 miles8
Battle5.7 miles8
Neale6.3 miles18
Mart6.7 miles8
Downsville7.7 miles15

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 RieselAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q788150The 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.