BlockBefore

Red Desert, Wyoming

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1980. It stands in the Wamsutter census division. It lies in ZIP code area 82336. The Survey maps it on the Red Desert quadrangle. It stands 6,745 feet above sea level.

Red Desert within Sweetwater County

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 8 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

31 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 31 fires within 5 miles of Red Desert between 1994 and 2019, burning about 84 acres in total. 1 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/undetermined16
Railroad operations and maintenance7
Equipment and vehicle use4
Fireworks2
Natural1
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
4 September 2005Equipment and vehicle use13 acresRawlins Field OfficeMP 161
16 September 2019Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreRawlins Field OfficeMILE MARKER 169
4 August 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreRawlins Field OfficeMILE MARKER 163
3 August 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreRawlins Field OfficeMILE MARKER 165
25 August 2008Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreRock Springs Field OfficeRAILROAD TIE
23 August 2002Natural1.5 acresRawlins Field OfficeWELLS
20 August 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.3 acresRawlins Field OfficeMP161E
13 August 2008Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreRawlins Field OfficeREDGRASS

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Sweetwater County

Storms near this place

2 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Red Desert in 2 storm reports between 2009 and 2015: 1 hail, 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
April 2009HailRed Desert$700,000Golf ball sized hail fell along Interstate 80 from nine miles west of Wamsutter to Wamsutter.
July 2015Tornado (EF0)Red Desert-A tornado was witnessed just north of Interstate 80 between Tipton and Red Desert Roads to the west of Wamsutter. The touchdown was very brief and the tornado remained over open country producing no damage.

Every storm recorded in Sweetwater 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
Wamsutter7.7 miles11
Tipton7.7 miles7
Robinson11.1 miles7
Table Rock14.4 miles7
J O Junction16.5 miles7
Creston19.7 miles10
Monell19.7 miles7
Creston Junction21.5 miles10

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 Red DesertAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3648230The 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 1597469. 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.

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.