BlockBefore

Waelder, Texas

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1901 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Waelder census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78959. The Survey maps it on the Waelder quadrangle. 933 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 381 feet above sea level.

Waelder within Gonzales County

Population over time

2 figures

Waelder fell from 1,065 to 933 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
20101,065
2020933-132 (-12%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 11 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

23 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 23 fires within 5 miles of Waelder between 1999 and 2019, burning about 341 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
Debris and open burning11
Missing data/not specified/undetermined5
Equipment and vehicle use5
Recreation and ceremony1
Smoking1

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
2 September 2012Debris and open burningunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceCONTROL BURN OUT OF CONTROL
19 September 2015Equipment and vehicle use39 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceRED STAGG
8 August 2013Equipment and vehicle use3.8 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceMM648 WEST FIRE
2 August 2018Equipment and vehicle use12 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceU-HAUL
16 August 2011Equipment and vehicle use62 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceCAL-MAINE FIRE
1 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceMUTUAL AID TO BASTROP
6 July 2013Recreation and ceremony10 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceTHOUROT FIRE
29 July 1999Missing data/not specified/undetermined10 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Gonzales 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 Waelder: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Bentonite, Clay. 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
Moesker PitBentonite, ClayProducerSedimentary

Every working recorded in Gonzales County

Storms near this place

9 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Waelder in 9 storm reports between 2005 and 2024: 6 flash flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning. 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
September 2009Thunderstorm WindWaelder$150,000A thunderstorm produced wind gusts estimated at 60 knots that damaged four large barns, downed several 18 inch diameter trees, and blew a metal windmill onto a tractor.
April 2019LightningWaelder$100,000Lightning started a fire at an oil tank battery damaging two tanks.
August 2010Thunderstorm WindWaelder$50,000Strong thunderstorm winds, estimated at 50 mph, blew down several trees, large limbs, and produced roof damage on several buildings and homes. The damage was mainly found a few blocks either side of Highway 90 and east of Highway 97 near Waelder.
January 2024Flash FloodWaelder-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding closing a low water crossing on FM 1115 a few miles north of Waelder.
January 2024Flash FloodWaelder-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding closing FM 1680 southeast of Waelder.
August 2017Flash FloodWaelder-Heavy rain from Tropical Storm Harvey produced flash flooding closing I-10 at mile marker 655.
April 2016Flash FloodWaelder-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that caused flash flooding closing FM2814 near the intersection of I-10 and Hwy 97 and FM304 near the Caldwell County line.
July 2007Flash FloodWaelder-Thunderstorms produced from 2 to 4 inches of rain over northeast Gonzales County, closing FM1115 and FM1296 due to flash flooding.
August 2005Flash FloodWaelder-Thunderstorms in northeastern Gonzales County near the Fayette County line produced general 1 to 2 inch rain totals with up to 4 inches falling near Waelder. Flash flooding developed in the late afternoon and continued into the early evening. Officials reported that SH97 and FM1115 were closed due to high water.

Every storm recorded in Gonzales 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
Thompsonville4.4 miles11
Brown Hill5.3 miles12
Newtonville6.2 miles11
Sandy Fork6.3 miles11
Hickston6.4 miles11
Saturn6.6 miles11
Comanche Crossing8.4 miles11
Little New York9.8 miles11

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 WaelderAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q980211The 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 1349626. 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.