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.
Population over time
3 figuresWest 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 3,116 | |
| 2010 | 3,063 | -53 (-2%) |
| 2020 | 3,444 | +381 (+12%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 25 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.
- 1896 USGS Austin quadrangle1:125000
- 1897 USGS Austin quadrangle1:125000
- 1910 USGS Austin quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1932 USGS Mt. Bonnell quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Austin quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1954 USGS Austin West quadrangle1:24000
- 1959 USGS Lake Travis quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1966 USGS Austin West quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1985 USGS Austin quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
- 1988 USGS Austin West quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
80 since 2005Regional 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/undetermined | 50 |
| Smoking | 12 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 3 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | VILLAGE WEST |
| 3 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | STALLION |
| 15 September 2008 | Smoking | 2.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 9 August 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 7 August 2011 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | BEE CAVE |
| 31 August 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 27 August 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | BASIN LEDGE FIRE |
| 27 August 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
16 since 1995Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2013 | Flash Flood | West Lake Hills | 1 killed, $2,000,000 | Thunderstorms 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 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Lake Hills | $100,000 | Damage was mainly to roofs and windows of businesses. Numerous trees uprooted. |
| August 2022 | Flash Flood | West 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 2021 | Flash Flood | West 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 2020 | Flash Flood | West 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 2019 | Flash Flood | West 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 2018 | Flash Flood | West Lake Hills | - | Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding closing numerous low water crossings in Austin and Travis County. |
| May 2015 | Flash Flood | West Lake Hills | - | A low water crossing on Old Bee Cave Road near Williamson Creek was closed. |
| May 2015 | Flash Flood | West Lake Hills | - | A road closure was reported at the 2700 block of Bee Caves Road. |
| October 2013 | Flash Flood | West 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 2009 | Flash Flood | West 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 2009 | Hail | West Lake Hills | - | A thunderstorm produced golf ball size hail and wind gusts estimated at 45 to 60 mph. |
| May 2022 | Hail | West Lake Hills | - | no account filed |
| May 2012 | Hail | West Lake Hills | - | no account filed |
| May 2012 | Hail | West Lake Hills | - | no account filed |
| April 2008 | Hail | West Lake Hills | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rollingwood | 1.6 miles | 25 | |
| Lost Creek | 2.3 miles | 25 | |
| Greenshores | 3.0 miles | 25 | |
| Barton Creek | 3.7 miles | 25 | |
| Austin | 3.8 miles | 19 | |
| River Hills | 3.8 miles | 25 | |
| Abercrombie | 4.9 miles | 19 | |
| Sunset Valley | 5.0 miles | 18 |
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 Hills | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q982020 | 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 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.









