Selah, Washington
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1899 and the latest in 1961. It stands in the Yakima census division. It lies in ZIP code area 98942. It lies near Crusher Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Selah quadrangle. 8,153 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,119 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresSelah grew from 7,147 to 8,153 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 | 7,147 | |
| 2020 | 8,153 | +1,006 (+14%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 16 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.
- 1899 USGS Ellensburg quadrangle1:125000
- 1901 USGS Ellensburg quadrangle1:125000, 6 printings
- 1950 USGS Yakima quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Selah quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Yakima quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Yakima quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
5 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Selah between 2001 and 2020, burning about 247 acres in total. None 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 | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 July 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | ROCK QUARRY |
| 23 July 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Spokane District | HARTFORD |
| 10 July 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 220 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | BUFFALO ROAD |
| 2 June 2001 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 1 June 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | BUFFALO ROAD |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 27 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 27 workings within 5 miles of Selah: 19 past producers, 7 occurrences, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Pumice, Graphite. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gleed | Diatomite | Occurrence | ||
| Naches River | Graphite | Occurrence | ||
| Selah | Silica | Occurrence | ||
| Yakima | Gemstone | Occurrence | ||
| Yakima | Clay | Past Producer | ||
| Selah No. 1 | Pumice | Occurrence | ||
| Selah No. 2 | Pumice | Occurrence | ||
| State Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Unnamed Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Wenas | Pumice | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
3 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Selah in 3 storm reports between 2004 and 2015: 2 flash flood, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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 2004 | Flash Flood | Selah | $2,000 | A nearly stationary thunderstorm caused flash flooding at the Yakima Army Training Center. This heavy rain led to minor damage of a gravel road, with the property damage estimated to be $2,000. |
| May 2015 | Flash Flood | Selah | - | Flooding in streets, 911 had some people evacuate buildings in fear of roof collapse. Police set up barricades to help divert drivers from flooded roadways, flooding in some homes. A few places lost power. |
| April 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Selah | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Selah | 2.4 miles | 15 | |
| Pomona Heights | 2.5 miles | 15 | |
| Fruitvale | 2.8 miles | 17 | |
| Brace | 3.1 miles | 16 | |
| Pomona | 3.4 miles | 15 | |
| Yakima | 3.8 miles | 17 | |
| Gleed | 4.4 miles | 16 | |
| Washington Park | 4.5 miles | 14 |
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 Selah | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q947107 | 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 1512655. 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.





