Beech, Iowa
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1910 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Union Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50225. The Survey maps it on the Beech quadrangle. It stands 912 feet above sea level.
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 9 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1910 USGS Milo quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Beech quadrangle1:24000
- 1969 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Indianola quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
9 since 2011Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 9 fires within 5 miles of Beech between 2011 and 2014, burning about 83 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 7 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 6 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 20 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 17 April 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 12 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 11 April 2014 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 March 2014 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Beech: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Zinc. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drill Hole | Zinc | Past Producer | Sphalerite |
Storms near this place
10 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Beech in 10 storm reports between 2001 and 2024: 6 hail, 2 tornado, 1 heavy rain, 1 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2010 | Tornado (EF1) | Beech | $250,000 | Several houses damaged. |
| June 2015 | Flash Flood | Beech | $20,000 | Law Enforcement reported that road closures are being conducted along Highway 69 between Indianola and Des Moines. |
| July 2001 | Hail | Beech | $15,000 | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Heavy Rain | Beech | $10,000 | Heavy rain of 2 inches in the past hour causing pooling along Highway 65/69 near Hayes Street. Lane blocked to traffic due to ponding water. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Beech | $5,000 | Quarter to half dollar size hail. |
| May 2024 | Tornado (EF0) | Beech | $2,000 | A TDS was observed on the KDMX WSR-88D Doppler radar to the northeast of Indianola. Damage was also reported from the same area via social media. The brief tornado remained in mostly rural areas of Warren County with the bulk of the damage to trees. |
| June 2021 | Hail | Beech | - | Report via mping of quarter sized hail. |
| June 2021 | Hail | Beech | - | Report via mping of ping pong ball sized hail. |
| July 2021 | Hail | Beech | - | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Hail | Beech | - | no account filed |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sandyville | 1.8 miles | 9 | |
| Clarkson (historical) | 6.0 miles | 9 | |
| Palmyra | 6.2 miles | 9 | |
| Greenbush (historical) | 6.3 miles | 9 | |
| Ackworth | 6.4 miles | 9 | |
| Hartford | 6.5 miles | 9 | |
| Milo | 7.5 miles | 9 | |
| Ford (historical) | 7.8 miles | 9 |
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 Beech | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q4879554 | The 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 454480. 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.






