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West Lake Hills, Texas

25 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1896 and the latest in 1988. It stands in the Austin census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78746. It stands on Little Bee Creek. The Survey maps it on the Austin West quadrangle. 3,444 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 781 feet above sea level.

West Lake Hills within Travis County

Population over time

3 figures

West Lake Hills grew from 3,116 to 3,444 between 2000 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
20003,116
20103,063-53 (-2%)
20203,444+381 (+12%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 25 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

80 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 80 fires within 5 miles of West Lake Hills between 2005 and 2020, burning about 80 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined50
Smoking12
Debris and open burning4
Equipment and vehicle use3
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Arson/incendiarism2
Recreation and ceremony2
Power generation/transmission/distribution2

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
8 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceVILLAGE WEST
3 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceSTALLION
15 September 2008Smoking2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
9 August 2006Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
7 August 2011Smoking1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceBEE CAVE
31 August 2006Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
27 August 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceBASIN LEDGE FIRE
27 August 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Travis County

Storms near this place

16 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names West Lake Hills in 16 storm reports between 1995 and 2022: 10 flash flood, 5 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind. The reports record 1 death. 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
October 2013Flash FloodWest Lake Hills1 killed, $2,000,000Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that caused flash flooding in the Rollingwood and Sunset Valley sections of Austin. Rainfall totals were as much as 11.33 inches in Travis County near Barton Creek and Loop 360 in west Austin. There were several high water rescues in both Rollingwood and Sunset Valley. Major flooding was reported along Williamson Creek near Heartwood Drive in south Austin. One fatality was discovered along Williamson Creek near Heartwood drive. The fatality was a homeless man. Several homes along Heartwood drive sustained considerable flood damage and damage was reported along Lady Bird Lake and Barton Springs Pool.
May 1995Thunderstorm WindWest Lake Hills$100,000Damage was mainly to roofs and windows of businesses. Numerous trees uprooted.
August 2022Flash FloodWest Lake Hills-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding. ATXFloods reported the low water crossing at Edgegrove Dr. and Bee Caves Rd. near Eanes Creek in West Lake Hills was closed.
August 2021Flash FloodWest Lake Hills-Thunderstorms produced four inches of rain in two hours in Austin. This led to flooding closing several streets including Camp Craft Rd. at Eanes Creek.
September 2020Flash FloodWest Lake Hills-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding. Some streets were closed near Barton Creek in the Lost Creek area of Austin.
May 2019Flash FloodWest Lake Hills-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding. ATX Floods reported a low water crossing closed at the 880 block of Edgegrove Dr. at Eanes Creek in Austin.
March 2018Flash FloodWest Lake Hills-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding closing numerous low water crossings in Austin and Travis County.
May 2015Flash FloodWest Lake Hills-A low water crossing on Old Bee Cave Road near Williamson Creek was closed.
May 2015Flash FloodWest Lake Hills-A road closure was reported at the 2700 block of Bee Caves Road.
October 2013Flash FloodWest Lake Hills-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that caused flash flooding in the Austin area. Low water crossings were flooded closing Bee Caves Rd., Joe Tanner Ln., Wasson Rd., and David Moore Dr.
September 2009Flash FloodWest Lake Hills-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain which resulted in flooding and the closure of a low water crossing on Camp Craft Road and the 6700 block of Lakewood Drive near Bullcreek Park. At 0526 a low water crossing was closed on Posten Lane in the 9700 block.
June 2009HailWest Lake Hills-A thunderstorm produced golf ball size hail and wind gusts estimated at 45 to 60 mph.
May 2022HailWest Lake Hills-no account filed
May 2012HailWest Lake Hills-no account filed
May 2012HailWest Lake Hills-no account filed
April 2008HailWest Lake Hills-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Travis 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
Rollingwood1.6 miles25
Lost Creek2.3 miles25
Greenshores3.0 miles25
Barton Creek3.7 miles25
Austin3.8 miles19
River Hills3.8 miles25
Abercrombie4.9 miles19
Sunset Valley5.0 miles18

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 West Lake HillsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q982020The 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 1349756. 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.

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.