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Alta, Wyoming

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1988. It stands in the Alta census division. It lies in ZIP code area 83414. It lies near Dry Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Clawson quadrangle. 429 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,440 feet above sea level.

Alta within Teton County

Population over time

2 figures

Alta grew from 394 to 429 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
2010394
2020429+35 (+9%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 10 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

18 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 18 fires within 5 miles of Alta between 1994 and 2019, burning about 6 acres in total. 10 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
Natural10
Recreation and ceremony4
Equipment and vehicle use2
Smoking1
Debris and open burning1

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 2001Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreCaribou-Targhee National ForestBACKHOE
7 September 1994Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresCaribou-Targhee National Forestnot named
24 September 2000Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreCaribou-Targhee National ForestSNOWY
17 September 2013Naturalunder an acreCaribou-Targhee National ForestEDDINGTON CANYON
31 August 2002Naturalunder an acreCaribou-Targhee National ForestSPRING CANYON
25 August 2000Naturalunder an acreCaribou-Targhee National ForestSPRING CREEK
23 August 2017Naturalunder an acreCaribou-Targhee National ForestSHEEP BRIDGE
21 August 2006Natural2.0 acresCaribou-Targhee National ForestBUSTLE CREEK

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Teton County

Mines and quarries near this place

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Alta: 4 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
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Teton County

Storms near this place

5 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alta in 5 storm reports between 2006 and 2025: 3 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. 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 2008HailAlta1 hurtA cooperative observer near Alta observed nickel sized hail.
October 2025Tornado (EF1)Alta$1,000On 10/15/25 from 1:35 to 1:37 PM MDT, a thunderstorm produced an EF1 tornado near Alta, WY in the Teton Canyon portion of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. Reports from social media after the event mentioned tree damage in the Teton Canyon area. Later drone footage taken by the local sheriff's office during the week after this event, as well as satellite imagery, identified a swath of tree damage consistent with 87-104 mph winds (EF1). ||Wind speed was determined using the Enhanced Fujita Scale Damage Indicator for #28 Tree - Softwood, since this tornado occurred in a dense coniferous portion of the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. No structures were in the path. Aerial drone photography showed hundreds of trees blown down by the tornado, with a clear damage swath/path through the forest. A majority of trees in the path were uprooted (Degree of Damage 3, 87 mph) or had their trunks snapped (DoD 4, 104 mph). Bark was visible on trees, and there was no notable debarking or stripping of branches seen in imagery (DoD 5). Given relatively healthy trees with no reason to believe trees were stronger or weaker than average, the lower and upper bounds for the DoDs were not utilized, and expected values were referenced. This led to a wind speed estimate of 87 to 104 mph, which is rated EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.||The tornado damage path is approximately 1.0 miles long, with a maximum width of 125 yards. The tornado damage path started at an elevation of 7900 ft ASL and ended around 6900 ft.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindAlta-Trees were reported down by the public between Alta and the Grand Targhee Ski Resort.
July 2008HailAlta-Nickel sized hail was recorded by a cooperative observer near Alta.
June 2006HailAlta-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Teton 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
Teton Village15.9 miles17
Beaver Creek16.6 miles15
Moose18.2 miles15
Moose Wilson Road18.8 miles17
Wilson19.4 miles17
Grovont21.1 miles15
Colter Bay Village23.4 miles15
Kelly23.7 miles15

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 AltaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1949361The 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 1597199. 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.