BlockBefore

Opal, Wyoming

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the Kemmerer East census division. It lies in ZIP code area 83124. The Survey maps it on the Opal quadrangle. 64 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,670 feet above sea level.

Opal within Lincoln County

Population over time

2 figures

Opal fell from 96 to 64 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
201096
202064-32 (-33%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 9 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

8 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Opal between 2015 and 2019, burning about 13 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/undetermined5
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Railroad operations and maintenance1

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
2 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined6.0 acresKemmerer Field OfficeHAMS
9 August 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKemmerer Field OfficeWAGON WHEEL
26 August 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKemmerer Field Office232
10 July 2016Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreKemmerer Field OfficeHIGHWAY 30
17 June 2019Power generation/transmission/distribution1.0 acresLincoln County14.9
23 October 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKemmerer Field OfficeOPAL
23 October 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresLincoln CountyOPAL RAIL
15 October 2019Railroad operations and maintenance3.0 acresLincoln CountyLARSEN 2019

Every fire recorded in Lincoln County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Opal: 1 unknown. 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
Unknown Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown

Every working recorded in Lincoln County

Storms near this place

3 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Opal in 3 storm reports between 2001 and 2024: 2 flash flood, 1 tornado. 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
August 2024Flash FloodOpal$100,000The Lincoln County emergency management reported flooding in the town of Opal, WY caused by heavy rain from a slow-moving thunderstorm. Rainfall amount is unknown due to not having any know weather stations in the area. Five homes experienced flash flooding, with about 6 inches of water in basements.
August 2024Flash FloodOpal$100,000The day after flash flooding occurred, more heavy rain impacted Opal, WY, leading to additional flash flooding. Large amounts of small hail and ponding water flooded roads and caused sewer backups.
July 2001Tornado (F1)Opal-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lincoln 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
Willow Addition11.2 miles10
Diamondville11.3 miles10
Kemmerer11.3 miles10
Frontier11.6 miles10
Blazon Junction13.3 miles11
Rocky Crossing15.2 miles8
Elkol15.5 miles11
Fontenelle20.5 miles9

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 OpalAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1029852The 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 1592450. 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.