Vernal, Utah
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1980. It stands in the Vernal census division. It lies in ZIP code area 84078. The Survey maps it on the Vernal NE quadrangle. 10,079 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 5,328 feet above sea level.
Research this city
On record in Vernal
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 12 records
Bank of Vernallisted 2008
Lewis Curry Houselisted 1982
Dine-A-Ville Dinosaurlisted 2023
Fenn-Bullock Houselisted 1999
Gibson-Sowards Houselisted 1997
Manfred and Ethel Martin Houselisted 2004
McConkie Ranch Petroglyphslisted 1975
William and Emily Siddoway Houselisted 2006
Smith, Francis 'Frank' and Eunice, Houselisted 2001
St. Paul's Episcopal Church and Lodgelisted 1985
Vernal Tithing Officelisted 1985
Washington School-Vernal LDS Relief Society Halllisted 2004
Surveyed buildings and structures 2 records
- Ashley Post Office, 1335 West 2000 North, Vernalfederal building survey, 7 photographs
- Irrigation Canals in the Uinta Basin, Highline Canal, Duchesnefederal building survey, 3 photographs
Population over time
2 figuresVernal grew from 9,089 to 10,079 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 | 9,089 | |
| 2020 | 10,079 | +990 (+11%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 17 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.
- 1885 USGS Ashley quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1917 USGS Vernal quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Vernal quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Vernal quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Vernal quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS Vernal NE quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1980 USGS Vernal quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Photographs
8 of 19 photographs shown, 2022Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.
Highsmith, Carol M, 2022. Library of Congress
Highsmith, Carol M, 2022. Library of Congress
Highsmith, Carol M, 2022. Library of Congress
Highsmith, Carol M, 2022. Library of Congress
Highsmith, Carol M, 2022. Library of Congress
Highsmith, Carol M, 2022. Library of Congress
Highsmith, Carol M, 2022. Library of Congress
Highsmith, Carol M, 2022. Library of Congress
Every photograph of Uintah County
Fires near this place
138 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 138 fires within 5 miles of Vernal between 1992 and 2020, burning about 206 acres in total. 4 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 59 |
| Debris and open burning | 37 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 16 |
| Fireworks | 13 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
| Natural | 4 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Firearms and explosives use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 September 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands | GUTTING TORCH |
| 23 September 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands | NO PERMIT |
| 22 September 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands | 4000 S 5000 E |
| 20 September 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3.5 acres | Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands | ASHLEY CREEK |
| 18 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands | WELLS |
| 8 August 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands | MAILBOX |
| 7 August 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Vernal Field Office | STEINAKER 1 |
| 4 August 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands | NAPLES ASSIST |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
8 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Vernal: 4 past producers, 3 producers, 1 occurrence. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Uranium, Oil Sands. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asphalt Ridge Deposit | Oil Sands | Past Producer | 1895 | |
| Devil and Satan Deposits | Uranium | Occurrence | ||
| Rock Point Sand Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Unconsolidated Sediments | |
| Rock Point Sand Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Steinaker Park Borrow Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Unconsolidated Sediments | |
| Steinaker Park Borrow Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Utah Dept Highways Pit # 24029 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Utah Dept. of Highways Pit No 24029 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Unconsolidated Sediments |
Storms near this place
27 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Vernal in 27 storm reports between 1993 and 2023: 10 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 4 flash flood, 2 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1997 | Flash Flood | Vernal | $100,000 | no account filed |
| August 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vernal | $30,000 | no account filed |
| September 2013 | Hail | Vernal | $20,000 | Large hail flattened gardens, dented a number of vehicles, and broke some windows. |
| August 2009 | Tornado (EF0) | Vernal | $1,000 | A tornado tracked through a small section of Vernal, mostly staying between houses. A number of trees had large limbs broken off and some minor damage occurred to sheds. The tornado was seen by many area residents and photographed by at least three persons. |
| July 1998 | Flash Flood | Vernal | $1,000 | no account filed |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vernal | - | A peak wind gust of 68 MPH was measured by the automated weather station at the Vernal Regional Airport. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vernal | - | A peak wind gust of 59 mph was measured by the automated weather station at the Vernal Regional Airport. |
| August 2018 | Hail | Vernal | - | Multiple trained spotters and members of the public observed nickel-sized hail in Vernal, mainly in the northwest portion of the city and in the downtown area. |
| September 2013 | Hail | Vernal | - | Hail accumulated up to two inches deep on Highway 191 and minor flooding was reported in the area. |
| June 2010 | Hail | Vernal | - | Hail up to 1 inch in diameter was reported. |
| June 2010 | Hail | Vernal | - | Hail up to 1.25 inches in diameter pummelled the area. |
| October 1994 | Hail | Vernal | - | A thunderstorm dropped 0.75-inch diameter hail at Ashley Creek. Larger hail was observed but not measured. |
| May 1993 | Tornado (F0) | Vernal | - | The cold upper low previously mentioned moved over northeast Utah by the early evening hours of the 5th. This produced a cold core funnel cloud. This was one of the rare occasions that a cold core funnel cloud became a tornado. The tornado was spotted by an airplane. Because the tornado only lasted a few minutes, and was in a sparsely populated region of the state, it caused no damage. |
| September 2013 | Hail | Vernal | - | no account filed |
| September 2013 | Hail | Vernal | - | no account filed |
| September 2013 | Hail | Vernal | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vernal | - | no account filed |
| September 2006 | Heavy Rain | Vernal | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Vernal | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Wildfire | Vernal | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Flash Flood | Vernal | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vernal | - | no account filed |
| September 1999 | Funnel Cloud | Vernal | - | no account filed |
| August 1999 | Funnel Cloud | Vernal | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Heavy Rain | Vernal | - | no account filed |
| August 1997 | Flash Flood | Vernal | - | no account filed |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Vernal | - | 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.
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 Vernal | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q482828 | 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 1433885. 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.






