Alpha, Iowa

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.

• 1954 USGS Waterloo quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
• 1955 USGS Waterloo quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1971 USGS Alpha quadrangle1:24000
• 1984 USGS Waverly quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Alpha between 2010 and 2017, burning about 40 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.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Richfield
• Hawkeye
• Saint Lucas
• Douglass
• Waucoma
• Westgate

Every fire recorded in Fayette County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Alpha: 6 past producers, 3 producers, 1 unknown. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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.

Every working recorded in Fayette County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alpha in 15 storm reports between 2000 and 2023: 8 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood, 1 heavy rain. 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.

Every storm recorded in Fayette County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

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.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 454149. 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.