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Ackley, Iowa

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Etna Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50601. The Survey maps it on the Ackley quadrangle. 1,599 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,093 feet above sea level.

Ackley within Hardin County

On record in Ackley

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

Ackley grew from 1,589 to 1,599 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
20101,589
20201,599+10 (+1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 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.

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 Ackley: 2 past producers, 1 unknown, 1 producer. 1 still produces. 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
Brandt PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Humke QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Park QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Hardin County

Storms near this place

26 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ackley in 26 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 11 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 2 flash flood. 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
June 2013Flash FloodAckley$250,000Parts of S56 is flooded. Several roads near Ackley were flooded.
August 1995Thunderstorm WindAckley$30,000A very warm and unstable air mass was over Iowa as a stationarrowy front extended from central Nebraska into southern Wisconsin. CAPE values were between 3000 and 4000 J-kg-1 over the state. Thunderstorms erupted over northwest Iowa and spread into the north central and eventually the northeast counties. For the most part the storms just produced heavy rainfall and gusty winds. During the early stages of the systems development there was some severe weather. High winds were reported in Worth County. Seventy mile an hour winds blew through areas south of Mason City in Cerro Gordo County southeast to the Rockwell area a small bow echo traversed the area. Other high winds occurred in the Estherville area of Emmet County with numerous trees down and also at Marquette in Clayton County. One of the storms produced a brief spin up tornado, or gustnado, northwest of Garner. An observer reported the brief touchdown in his front yard. Damage was very minor however. The storms produced copious amounts of rain. Parts of Cerro Gordo County, south of Mason City, received between five and six inches of rain in under three hours. Two and one half inches fell in an hours time. Widespread street flooding was reported with most streets under at least six inches of water. Parts of the city reported water knee deep. The water receded fairly quickly as antecedent conditions were very dry. The storms the dumped the heavy rainfall were the result of back development from the storms that moved through earlier in the evening. One of the storms did become severe and caused damage to several cabins northeast of Clarion. High winds downed several trees in the area as well. Farther to the east and south, a thunderstorm downed trees in the Ackley area. Winds of at least 70 MPH in what appeared to be a downburst completely flattened 32 acres of a corn field northeast of town.
March 2006Thunderstorm WindAckley$25,000no account filed
July 2016Thunderstorm WindAckley$20,000Law Enforcement reported several power lines and large trees down throughout the town of Ackley, as well as other portions of Hardin County.
June 2009Thunderstorm WindAckley$15,000Large trees were down throughout town making streets impassible. Some trees were on houses.
June 2014Flash FloodAckley$5,000Water was running over the road. County closed the road.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindAckley$5,000no account filed
August 2004HailAckley$5,000no account filed
June 2001HailAckley$5,000no account filed
August 2004Thunderstorm WindAckley$3,000no account filed
August 2004Tornado (F1)Ackley$2,000Tornado touched down in farm fields and remained in open country. It caused little damage.
June 2005HailAckley$2,000no account filed
June 2005Thunderstorm WindAckley$1,000no account filed
June 2005HailAckley$1,000no account filed
June 2005HailAckley$1,000no account filed
May 2024HailAckley-Submitted picture of penny sized hail in Ackley. Time estimated by radar.
July 2018Funnel CloudAckley-Hardin County Sheriff relayed public reports of a funnel cloud near Ackley.
August 2018Heavy RainAckley-Public reported a 24 hour heavy rainfall total of 3.55 inches.
August 2015Heavy RainAckley-USACE stream gauge reported heavy rainfall of 5.35 inches event total so far.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindAckley-High winds blew down corn in a field.
August 2004Tornado (F0)Ackley-Tornado moved from Franklin County into northern Hardin County. It was in open fields.
April 2025HailAckley-no account filed
April 2014HailAckley-no account filed
June 2006HailAckley-no account filed
June 2006HailAckley-no account filed
June 2002HailAckley-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hardin 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
Abbott Crossing (historical)4.3 miles9
Abbott4.8 miles9
Macey5.1 miles9
Robertson5.1 miles9
Cleves5.6 miles9
Eagle City7.5 miles9
Steamboat Rock10.0 miles9
Iowa Falls10.7 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 AckleyAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q669853The 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 454084. 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.

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.