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Waunakee, Wisconsin

24 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Waunakee Village. It lies in ZIP code area 53597. The Survey maps it on the Waunakee quadrangle. 14,879 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 928 feet above sea level.

Waunakee within Dane County

On record in Waunakee

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Waunakee grew from 12,097 to 14,879 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
201012,097
202014,879+2,782 (+23%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 24 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

11 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Waunakee between 2000 and 2020, burning about 84 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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/undetermined6
Debris and open burning2
Arson/incendiarism1
Equipment and vehicle use1
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
8 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources246
6 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources342
16 June 2007Smokingunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
4 April 2004Debris and open burningunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
29 April 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources491
27 April 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources1809771
27 April 2000Arson/incendiarism82 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
31 March 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources2019-28

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Dane County

Mines and quarries near this place

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Waunakee: 7 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Endres QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Francis Nordness PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Johnson PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Norway Grove PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Schumacher PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Westport PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Yahara Materials Company Kipley PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Dane County

Storms near this place

33 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Waunakee in 33 storm reports between 1997 and 2026: 12 thunderstorm wind, 11 hail, 3 tornado, 3 flood. 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
July 1997Tornado (F1)Waunakee1 hurt, $388,500no account filed
August 2018FloodWaunakee$32,800,000Black Earth Creek crested at 9.73 feet at Black Earth around 2:00 AM on 8/21/18, and at 16.6 feet at Mazomanie around 7:00 AM. The Sugar River and many other creeks and low lying areas continued to flood. The historic flooding resulted in hundreds of citizens rescued, evacuated, or stranded, especially along the highway 14 corridor which parallels Black Earth Creek and then continues into Middleton and Madison. Homes and businesses in Cross Plains, Black Earth, Mazomanie, Middleton, and the west side of Madison were most impacted. Overall, Dane County had 380 homes with affected damage, 857 homes with minor damage, 302 homes with major damage, and 5 homes destroyed. 27 businesses had minor damage and 17 suffered major damage. |A bridge was partially washed out on highway 14 near Black Earth, with highway 14 being closed from Middleton to the Iowa County line due to many washouts and high water. Many other roads in western Dane County were closed due to washouts and high water, including southbound 151 near Mount Horeb and large portions of highway 78. 5000 feet of railroad tracks on the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad were washed out between Mazomanie and Madison.
July 1997Thunderstorm WindWaunakee$151,400no account filed
July 1997Tornado (F1)Waunakee$130,000no account filed
August 2001LightningWaunakee$40,000A home in Waunakee sustained heavy fire damage due to a lightning strike.
June 2001Thunderstorm WindWaunakee$10,000no account filed
July 2023Thunderstorm WindWaunakee$6,000Several trees and branches down.
April 2026Thunderstorm WindWaunakee$5,000Some trees uprooted and snapped.
June 2006Thunderstorm WindWaunakee$5,000Around 1930 CST (830 PM CDT) thunderstorm wind gusts took a roof off a house 2 miles east of Waunakee. Winds were estimated at 70 knots (80 mph). About 5,000 dollars in damage resulted.
May 2000FloodWaunakee$5,000no account filed
July 2025Thunderstorm WindWaunakee$3,000Pictures from social media indicating numerous large branches down across Waunakee.
March 2005Tornado (F0)Waunakee$2,000A weak F0 tornado spun up east of Waunakee on a seed farm on the north side of State Highway 19. It slightly damaged the corner overhang of a storage shed, blew a wagon and plastic crates into a field, and rotated a heavy forklift while the operator was sitting in it. The winds were estimated at 56 to 61 knots (65 to 70 mph).
May 2024Thunderstorm WindWaunakee$1,000Top of a tree snapped and another tree snapped at its base.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindWaunakee$1,000A tree down.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindWaunakee-Two trees snapped off at the base.
June 2022FloodWaunakee-Water covering Knightsbridge Road.
July 2020Heavy RainWaunakee-Flooding on a small portion of Division St. due to the flooding of the nearby Six Mile Creek after a quick 2-3 inches of rain.
March 2005HailWaunakee-Ground covered white.
May 2025HailWaunakee-no account filed
April 2025HailWaunakee-no account filed
April 2025HailWaunakee-no account filed
April 2024HailWaunakee-no account filed
April 2023HailWaunakee-no account filed
September 2021HailWaunakee-no account filed
May 2017HailWaunakee-no account filed
May 2006Thunderstorm WindWaunakee-no account filed
June 2006Funnel CloudWaunakee-no account filed
July 2006HailWaunakee-no account filed
March 2005HailWaunakee-no account filed
May 2005HailWaunakee-no account filed
May 2005Heavy RainWaunakee-no account filed
August 2002Thunderstorm WindWaunakee-no account filed
May 2001Thunderstorm WindWaunakee-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Dane 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
Kingsley Corners2.4 miles24
Catfish (historical)3.9 miles24
Dane4.7 miles22
Norway Grove4.8 miles24
Mendota4.9 miles24
Ashton Corners5.0 miles15
Ashton5.8 miles15
Lake Windsor5.8 miles24

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 WaunakeeAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1246532The 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 1576318. 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.