Sierra Blanca, Texas
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1895 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Sierra Blanca census division. It lies in ZIP code area 79851. It lies near Texan Mountain. The Survey maps it on the Sierra Blanca quadrangle. 315 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,528 feet above sea level.
Research this city
On record in Sierra Blanca
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Hudspeth County Courthouselisted 1975
Population over time
2 figuresSierra Blanca fell from 553 to 315 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 | 553 | |
| 2020 | 315 | -238 (-43%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 13 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.
- 1895 USGS Sierra Blanca quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1954 USGS Van Horn quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Van Horn quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS Sierra Blanca quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1985 USGS Sierra Blanca quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
3 since 2011Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Sierra Blanca in 2011, burning about 6 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/undetermined | 3 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 May 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.5 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 120 FIRE |
| 16 May 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 106 FIRE |
| 14 May 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 110 FIRE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Sierra Blanca: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Copper. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed Prospect | Copper | Occurrence | Chrysocolla, Malachite |
Storms near this place
21 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sierra Blanca in 21 storm reports between 1997 and 2021: 13 hail, 3 tornado, 3 flash flood, 1 lightning. The reports record 1 injury. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 1998 | Lightning | Sierra Blanca | 1 hurt | A man was injured and sent to the hospital after his vehicle was struck by lightning. |
| April 2017 | Hail | Sierra Blanca | $2,000,000 | Hail from 1.5 inches to 2.5 inches in diameter was reported in and around Sierra Blanca. Some areas had hail up to 3 inches deep. Numerous house windows and automobile windshields were damaged, with many cars left dented. Hail also severely damaged dozens of roofs and even penetrated a few. |
| May 2007 | Flash Flood | Sierra Blanca | $50,000 | At least 6 houses were flooded in Sierra Blanca, with one of them evacuated. Most of the secondary roads in the area were washed out and closed. |
| September 2021 | Flash Flood | Sierra Blanca | - | TXDOT closed railroad frontage underpass because of flooding in Sierra Blanca. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Sierra Blanca | - | Marble to penny sized hail. |
| May 2010 | Hail | Sierra Blanca | - | Golfball size hail was reported in Sierra Blanca. |
| May 2010 | Hail | Sierra Blanca | - | Nickel to quarter size hail was reported at the United States Border Patrol Station in Sierra Blanca. |
| June 2007 | Tornado (EF0) | Sierra Blanca | - | A tornado was observed by a sheriff's deputy near mile marker 114 on Interstate 10, about 6 miles southeast of Sierra Blanca. |
| September 2007 | Flash Flood | Sierra Blanca | - | Heavy rains (2.5 inches) caused flash flooding in the Sierra Blanca area. Skunk Canyon Road was washed out, and arroyos were over bankfull. |
| June 2019 | Hail | Sierra Blanca | - | no account filed |
| March 2007 | Hail | Sierra Blanca | - | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | Sierra Blanca | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Sierra Blanca | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Sierra Blanca | - | no account filed |
| October 2004 | Hail | Sierra Blanca | - | no account filed |
| October 2004 | Hail | Sierra Blanca | - | no account filed |
| October 2004 | Hail | Sierra Blanca | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sierra Blanca | - | no account filed |
| October 2000 | Hail | Sierra Blanca | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Tornado (F0) | Sierra Blanca | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Tornado (F1) | Sierra Blanca | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Etholen | 3.8 miles | 13 | |
| Arispe | 4.6 miles | 13 | |
| Mile High | 7.3 miles | 12 | |
| Old Patterson Place | 9.4 miles | 11 | |
| Eagle Flat | 12.7 miles | 11 | |
| Fort Quitman | 14.3 miles | 10 | |
| Finlay | 15.6 miles | 11 | |
| Esperanza | 18.8 miles | 11 |
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 Sierra Blanca | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q975912 | 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 1368253. 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.




