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Yelm, Washington

19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1916 and the latest in 1990. It stands in the Olympia East census division. It lies in ZIP code area 98597. It stands on Yelm Prairie. The Survey maps it on the McKenna quadrangle. 10,617 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 354 feet above sea level.

Yelm within Thurston County

On record in Yelm

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 4 records

Population over time

2 figures

Yelm grew from 6,848 to 10,617 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
20106,848
202010,617+3,769 (+55%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

11 surveys from 19 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

169 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 169 fires within 5 miles of Yelm between 1992 and 2020, burning about 158 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 7 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined48
Debris and open burning44
Recreation and ceremony24
Misuse of fire by a minor17
Fireworks10
Arson/incendiarism7
Equipment and vehicle use6
Natural4
Smoking4
Power generation/transmission/distribution3
Other causes2

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
8 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.2 acresWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters700
8 September 2001Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
8 September 1998Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
8 September 1996Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
8 September 1994Arson/incendiarismunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
7 September 2003Natural1.0 acresWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
7 September 1998Recreation and ceremony2.5 acresWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
6 September 1997Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Thurston County

Mines and quarries near this place

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Yelm: 5 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: 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
Gehrke PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Olsen PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Price PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Unnamed PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Yelm PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Thurston County

Storms near this place

3 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Yelm in 3 storm reports between 1997 and 2017: 1 hail, 1 tornado, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2017Thunderstorm WindYelm$700,000Severe thunderstorm wind gusts peaked around 70 mph during the event between 3 and 5 PM, knocking down trees and power lines leaving nearly 50,000 without power. Several homes had trees fall on them.
October 2003Tornado (F0)Yelm$5,000A weak tornado, on the ground for less than a minute, damaged a few power lines and knocked down some tree limbs.
September 1997HailYelm-A thunderstorm with golf ball sized hail broke car windshields in Yelm.

Every storm recorded in Thurston 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
Five Corners1.1 miles19
North Yelm1.5 miles19
Four Corners2.5 miles19
Rainier5.7 miles19
Vail7.2 miles18
Saint Clair8.4 miles17
Kellys Korner9.1 miles21
Skookumchuck9.1 miles21

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 YelmAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1510424The 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 1512817. 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.