Sour Lake, Texas
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1986. It stands in the Sour Lake census division. It lies in ZIP code area 77659. The Survey maps it on the Sour Lake quadrangle. 1,773 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 49 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresSour Lake fell from 1,813 to 1,773 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 | 1,813 | |
| 2020 | 1,773 | -40 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 12 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 Beaumont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Sour Lake quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Beaumont quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Beaumont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1984 USGS Sour Lake quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1986 USGS Beaumont quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
85 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 85 fires within 5 miles of Sour Lake between 1993 and 2018, burning about 1,229 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 17 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 | 51 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 17 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2011 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | BATSON BRUSHFIRE |
| 6 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | YATES BRUSHFIRE |
| 23 September 1999 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 15 September 1999 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 8 August 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | NULL |
| 7 August 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | WOODVILLE - 197 |
| 6 August 2011 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | HWY 105 HAYFIRE |
| 5 August 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | WOODVILLE - 468 |
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 Sour Lake: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Halite. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sour Lake Salt Dome | Halite | Occurrence | 1901 |
Storms near this place
25 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sour Lake in 25 storm reports between 1994 and 2023: 8 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 6 flash flood, 3 tornado. The reports record 2 injuries. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sour Lake | 1 hurt, $1,100,000 | no account filed |
| November 1994 | Tornado (F2) | Sour Lake | 1 hurt, $3,000 | A tornado touched down 1.5 miles NNW of Sour Lake and moved toward the northeast for 2 miles, crossing State Highway 326 in the process. It tracked across open fields and the only damage was to trees and fencing along the path. The tornado path averaged around 50 yards wide, increasing to nearly 0.5 miles wide at one point. The tornado was viewed by several hunters, one of whom was slightly injured when she was blown out of her stand as it passed nearby. |
| October 2015 | Flash Flood | Sour Lake | $2,000,000 | Heavy rain moved into Hardin County early during the morning of the 31st. Flooding of roadways with water at least 2 feet deep was reported in Silsbee by 6:15 AM. By 10:51 AM the Department of Highways reported that most roads in the county had water covering them and water rescues were ongoing by 11 AM according to the county police department near Silsbee and Kountze. Around 50 houses in the county were flooded. By the end of the event Reeves Elementary in Silsbee received 9.0 inches, Kountze Elementary received 9.71 inches, 11.58 inches was reported from West Hardin High School in Saratoga, and 14.25 reported at Highway 105 at Pine Island Bayou near Batson. |
| November 2008 | Lightning | Sour Lake | $75,000 | Lightning struck a church educational building, destroying it. |
| February 2007 | Flash Flood | Sour Lake | $10,000 | Highway 105 between Bevil Oaks and Sour Lake was under water due to three to five inches of rain. |
| November 2001 | Flash Flood | Sour Lake | $10,000 | no account filed |
| October 1998 | Tornado (F0) | Sour Lake | $10,000 | no account filed |
| January 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sour Lake | $10,000 | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sour Lake | $5,000 | no account filed |
| September 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sour Lake | $5,000 | no account filed |
| March 2015 | Flash Flood | Sour Lake | $2,000 | Thunderstorms trained across portions of Hardin County from near Sour Lake to Lumberton during the morning of the 12th. While rainfall rates were not excessive, several hours of moderate to heavy rainfall flooded some secondary roads, a section of FM 421 at a low water crossing, and one home in west side of Lumberton. |
| February 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sour Lake | $2,000 | Trees were blown down in Pinewood. |
| April 2023 | Hail | Sour Lake | - | A picture of hail 1.5 inches in diameter was received through social media. |
| December 2022 | Flash Flood | Sour Lake | - | Heavy rain caused Little Pine Island to go over bank full and flood streets around Pinewood Estates. |
| January 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sour Lake | - | A broadcast media weathernet station recorded a winds gust of 59 mph. |
| April 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sour Lake | - | A tree was blown down near Sour Lake. The tree also knocked down power lines. |
| June 2016 | Flash Flood | Sour Lake | - | Widespread street flooding was reported by the Hardin County Sheriff's Department. Flooding closed roads across a large portion of the county including in Lumberton and Silsbee. |
| February 2007 | Hail | Sour Lake | - | Occurred at the Hardin-Jefferson High School. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Sour Lake | - | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sour Lake | - | no account filed |
| September 2011 | Hail | Sour Lake | - | no account filed |
| February 2008 | Hail | Sour Lake | - | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | Sour Lake | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Sour Lake | - | no account filed |
| October 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Sour Lake | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grayburg | 1.3 miles | 11 | |
| Hathaway | 3.9 miles | 12 | |
| Pinewood Estates | 5.0 miles | 12 | |
| Pine Ridge | 5.4 miles | 12 | |
| Strain | 7.3 miles | 13 | |
| Rattlesnake Bend | 10.3 miles | 13 | |
| Saratoga | 11.7 miles | 14 | |
| Rose Hill Acres | 12.1 miles | 14 |
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 Sour Lake | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q981154 | 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 1347394. 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.





