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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.

Sour Lake within Hardin County

Population over time

2 figures

Sour 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.

YearPeople Change
20101,813
20201,773-40 (-2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 12 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

85 since 1993

Regional 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 burning51
Arson/incendiarism17
Missing data/not specified/undetermined9
Equipment and vehicle use5
Natural2
Railroad operations and maintenance1

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
7 September 2011Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceBATSON BRUSHFIRE
6 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceYATES BRUSHFIRE
23 September 1999Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
15 September 1999Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
8 August 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceNULL
7 August 2009Equipment and vehicle use2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceWOODVILLE - 197
6 August 2011Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceHWY 105 HAYFIRE
5 August 2000Missing data/not specified/undetermined12 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceWOODVILLE - 468

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hardin County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Sour Lake Salt DomeHaliteOccurrence1901

Every working recorded in Hardin County

Storms near this place

25 since 1994

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 1996Thunderstorm WindSour Lake1 hurt, $1,100,000no account filed
November 1994Tornado (F2)Sour Lake1 hurt, $3,000A 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 2015Flash FloodSour Lake$2,000,000Heavy 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 2008LightningSour Lake$75,000Lightning struck a church educational building, destroying it.
February 2007Flash FloodSour Lake$10,000Highway 105 between Bevil Oaks and Sour Lake was under water due to three to five inches of rain.
November 2001Flash FloodSour Lake$10,000no account filed
October 1998Tornado (F0)Sour Lake$10,000no account filed
January 1997Thunderstorm WindSour Lake$10,000no account filed
August 2002Thunderstorm WindSour Lake$5,000no account filed
September 2000Thunderstorm WindSour Lake$5,000no account filed
March 2015Flash FloodSour Lake$2,000Thunderstorms 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 2007Thunderstorm WindSour Lake$2,000Trees were blown down in Pinewood.
April 2023HailSour Lake-A picture of hail 1.5 inches in diameter was received through social media.
December 2022Flash FloodSour Lake-Heavy rain caused Little Pine Island to go over bank full and flood streets around Pinewood Estates.
January 2020Thunderstorm WindSour Lake-A broadcast media weathernet station recorded a winds gust of 59 mph.
April 2019Thunderstorm WindSour Lake-A tree was blown down near Sour Lake. The tree also knocked down power lines.
June 2016Flash FloodSour 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 2007HailSour Lake-Occurred at the Hardin-Jefferson High School.
June 2011HailSour Lake-no account filed
June 2011Thunderstorm WindSour Lake-no account filed
September 2011HailSour Lake-no account filed
February 2008HailSour Lake-no account filed
May 2005HailSour Lake-no account filed
April 2002HailSour Lake-no account filed
October 2001Tornado (F0)Sour Lake-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hardin 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
Grayburg1.3 miles11
Hathaway3.9 miles12
Pinewood Estates5.0 miles12
Pine Ridge5.4 miles12
Strain7.3 miles13
Rattlesnake Bend10.3 miles13
Saratoga11.7 miles14
Rose Hill Acres12.1 miles14

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 LakeAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q981154The 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.