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.
Population over time
2 figuresWaelder 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1,065 | |
| 2020 | 933 | -132 (-12%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 11 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.
- 1901 USGS Flatonia quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS Seguin quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Seguin quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS Waelder quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Seguin quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
23 since 1999Regional 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 burning | 11 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 September 2012 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | CONTROL BURN OUT OF CONTROL |
| 19 September 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 39 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | RED STAGG |
| 8 August 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3.8 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | MM648 WEST FIRE |
| 2 August 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 12 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | U-HAUL |
| 16 August 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 62 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | CAL-MAINE FIRE |
| 1 August 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | MUTUAL AID TO BASTROP |
| 6 July 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 10 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | THOUROT FIRE |
| 29 July 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
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 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moesker Pit | Bentonite, Clay | Producer | Sedimentary |
Storms near this place
9 since 2005Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Waelder | $150,000 | A 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 2019 | Lightning | Waelder | $100,000 | Lightning started a fire at an oil tank battery damaging two tanks. |
| August 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Waelder | $50,000 | Strong 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 2024 | Flash Flood | Waelder | - | Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding closing a low water crossing on FM 1115 a few miles north of Waelder. |
| January 2024 | Flash Flood | Waelder | - | Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding closing FM 1680 southeast of Waelder. |
| August 2017 | Flash Flood | Waelder | - | Heavy rain from Tropical Storm Harvey produced flash flooding closing I-10 at mile marker 655. |
| April 2016 | Flash Flood | Waelder | - | 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 2007 | Flash Flood | Waelder | - | Thunderstorms produced from 2 to 4 inches of rain over northeast Gonzales County, closing FM1115 and FM1296 due to flash flooding. |
| August 2005 | Flash Flood | Waelder | - | 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. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thompsonville | 4.4 miles | 11 | |
| Brown Hill | 5.3 miles | 12 | |
| Newtonville | 6.2 miles | 11 | |
| Sandy Fork | 6.3 miles | 11 | |
| Hickston | 6.4 miles | 11 | |
| Saturn | 6.6 miles | 11 | |
| Comanche Crossing | 8.4 miles | 11 | |
| Little New York | 9.8 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 Waelder | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q980211 | 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 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.




