BlockBefore

Elma, Washington

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1943 and the latest in 1988. It stands in the Elma census division. It lies in ZIP code area 98541. It stands on McDonald Creek. The Survey maps it on the Elma quadrangle. 3,438 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 49 feet above sea level.

Elma within Grays Harbor County

Population over time

2 figures

Elma grew from 3,107 to 3,438 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.

YearPeople Change
20103,107
20203,438+331 (+11%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 9 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

60 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 60 fires within 5 miles of Elma between 1992 and 2020, burning about 67 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
Debris and open burning20
Recreation and ceremony12
Missing data/not specified/undetermined9
Equipment and vehicle use6
Railroad operations and maintenance3
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Arson/incendiarism2
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Fireworks2
Other causes1
Smoking1

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
9 September 1998Smokingunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
26 September 2000Debris and open burningunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
22 September 1999Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
17 September 1999Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
12 September 2019Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersMALONE
10 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersMOX CHEHALIS
10 September 2014Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersSCHOUWEILER TRACTS
10 September 2006Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Grays Harbor County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 24 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 24 workings within 5 miles of Elma: 23 past producers, 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, REE, Iron, Titanium, Metal. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
ElmaIron, Titanium, MetalPast ProducerFossil Placer
ElmaIron, Titanium, MetalOccurrenceFossil Placer
Schouweiler Road Pit and PlantREEPast Producer
Badger PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Bayview PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Borrow PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Borrow PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Borrow PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Borrow PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Brady PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Grays Harbor County

Storms near this place

2 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Elma in 2 storm reports between 1997 and 1998: 1 tornado, 1 heavy rain. 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
December 1998Heavy RainElma$200,000no account filed
August 1997Tornado (F0)Elma-State patrol reported a weak tornado that caused minor tree damage.

Every storm recorded in Grays Harbor 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
South Elma1.6 miles15
Saginaw2.4 miles15
Greenwood2.6 miles15
Fuller3.9 miles15
Satsop4.0 miles9
Rony5.1 miles15
Malone5.2 miles15
Brady5.5 miles14

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 ElmaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q610930The 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 1512188. 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.