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Blairstown, Iowa

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Leroy Township. It lies in ZIP code area 52209. It stands on Weasel Creek. The Survey maps it on the Blairstown quadrangle. 713 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 840 feet above sea level.

Blairstown within Benton County

Population over time

2 figures

Blairstown grew from 692 to 713 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
2010692
2020713+21 (+3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 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

8 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Blairstown between 2008 and 2018, burning about 20 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
Debris and open burning2
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
3 May 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
29 May 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resources85 MM I-29, IOWA
28 April 2008Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
17 April 2017Debris and open burning3.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
11 April 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined10 acresIowa Department of Natural Resources101-103 MM I29, IOWA
21 March 2017Debris and open burning3.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
19 March 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
15 March 2018Smoking1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Benton County

Storms near this place

15 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Blairstown in 15 storm reports between 1994 and 2026: 8 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 1994HailBlairstown$5,000no account filed
July 2006HailBlairstown$3,000Blairstown Fire reports golfball size hail at the jct of 19th Ave & 77th street
April 2026HailBlairstown-Report received from Mping.
September 2023Tornado (EFU)Blairstown-Multiple trained storm spotters reported a brief tornado. Location and time estimated by radar and reports. There were no reports of damage.
December 2021Thunderstorm WindBlairstown-Report relayed though emergency manager.
October 2018Tornado (EF0)Blairstown-A brief tornado was observed by a broadcast meteorologist. The tornado touched down in a field and lasted for less than 30 seconds. No damage was reported.
May 2017Thunderstorm WindBlairstown-Report was from a local resident using a personal weather instrument.
April 2014Thunderstorm WindBlairstown-The Benton County Emergency Manager reported a building blown down along with power lines. a tractor trailer was jack-knifed on Highway 30.
August 2011Funnel CloudBlairstown-A spotter located 3 miles southeast of Keystone observed a funnel cloud about 3 miles east of his location.
March 2007HailBlairstown-Penny size hail was reported.
June 2007Flash FloodBlairstown-Water covered parts of 21st Avenue, and many other streets were flooded.
July 2006HailBlairstown-Blairstown Fire reports dime then nickel size hail; also 0.70 inches of rain in ten minutes
July 2006HailBlairstown-Norway Fire reports nickel size hail at the jct of 23rd Ave & 79th street
June 2006HailBlairstown-no account filed
September 2000HailBlairstown-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Benton 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
Luzerne5.1 miles8
Watkins5.3 miles13
Van Horne6.9 miles9
Keystone8.6 miles8
Newhall8.6 miles13
Norway8.6 miles13
Belle Plaine10.3 miles9
Irving11.5 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 BlairstownAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1934122The 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 454677. 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.