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William Penn, Texas

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1914 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the Gay Hill-Independence census division. It lies in ZIP code area 77833. The Survey maps it on the Independence quadrangle.

William Penn within Washington County

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 10 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

115 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 115 fires within 5 miles of William Penn between 2006 and 2020, burning about 303 acres in total. 3 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 burning77
Equipment and vehicle use14
Missing data/not specified/undetermined8
Smoking6
Power generation/transmission/distribution5
Natural3
Misuse of fire by a minor1
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
4 September 2019Equipment and vehicle use3.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceFM 2621
4 September 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreTexas A & M Forest Service9800 FM 2621
30 September 2011Power generation/transmission/distribution3.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServicePALESTINE RD
3 September 2017Debris and open burning2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceKETTLER RD
19 September 2018Debris and open burning5.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServicePALESTINE RD
16 September 2019Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceOLD INDEPANDENCE
16 September 2007Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
13 September 2019Smoking4.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServicePALESTINE RD FIRE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Washington County

Storms near this place

2 since 2013

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names William Penn in 2 storm reports between 2013 and 2016: 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. 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
May 2016Tornado (EF0)William Penn$10,000Short damage path near William Penn Rd. Numerous trees downed, few uprooted, in convergent pattern along path.
August 2013Thunderstorm WindWilliam Penn$7,000There were numerous trees reported downed around the FM 390 East and Tappe Road area.

Every storm recorded in Washington 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
Independence3.4 miles10
Sandy Hill3.5 miles10
Whitman5.6 miles8
Washington6.7 miles10
Prairie Hill6.8 miles10
Earlywine6.9 miles9
Goodwill7.2 miles8
Wiedeville7.3 miles9

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 William PennAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q54871444The 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 1379277. 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.