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Ritzville, Washington

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1982. It stands in the Ritzville census division. It lies in ZIP code area 99169. The Survey maps it on the Ritzville NW quadrangle. 1,767 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,818 feet above sea level.

Ritzville within Adams County

On record in Ritzville

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 6 records

Population over time

2 figures

Ritzville grew from 1,673 to 1,767 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
20101,673
20201,767+94 (+6%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 7 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.

Mines and quarries near this place

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Ritzville: 8 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Ritzville Pre-MixSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Unnamed PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Daughters QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Quarry Site Ad-50Stone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Ritzville QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Unnamed QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Unnamed QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Wellsandt QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Adams County

Storms near this place

8 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ritzville in 8 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 2 hail, 2 funnel cloud, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 wildfire. The reports record 1 injury. 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
August 1998WildfireRitzville1 hurt, $60,000A tractor sparked a fire in a wheat field which was fanned by gusty winds. Over 20,000 acres were burned and a rancher was injuried.
June 2024Thunderstorm WindRitzville$2,000Several trees at the fairgrounds suffered significant damage. Time estimated. A nearby sensor recorded a max gust of 42 MPH.
August 2008Thunderstorm WindRitzville$1,000Strong outflow winds from a thunderstorm uprooted a large tree in Ritzville.
May 2020Funnel CloudRitzville-A member of the public reported a brief funnel cloud seen in Ritzville, Washington.
June 2001FloodRitzville-Water flowed over a county road near Bauer Coulee and Harder Road.
June 2001HailRitzville-A severe supercell thunderstorm containing large hail and torrential rainfall moved from southwest to northeast across northern Adams County, first entering the county east of Warden and exiting the county north of Schoonover. The only observation from Adams County of hail size with this storm was a report of dime-sized hail at 500 PM PDT at the Franz Ranch Airport (23 WSW Ritzville). The hail caused a widespread swath of crop destruction that was 20 miles long and 2-3 miles wide, laying waste to about 22,000 acres of crops. The severity of crop damage in the storm's path suggests hail likely reached the size of golf balls. Hail piled up to a foot deep in some farm yards. In the center of the storm's path, nearly 100% of the wheat, barley, bean and pea crops were a loss.
July 1998Funnel CloudRitzville-Adams county sheriff reported a funnel cloud.
May 1997HailRitzville-3/4 inch hail

Every storm recorded in Adams 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
Marcellus7.4 miles7
Tokio8.1 miles7
Packard8.5 miles7
Paha9.2 miles8
Hillcrest9.6 miles7
Ralston10.1 miles10
Marengo12.3 miles7
Teske12.6 miles7

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 RitzvilleAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1512748The 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 1512607. 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.

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.