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.
Population over time
2 figuresBlairstown 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 692 | |
| 2020 | 713 | +21 (+3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 8 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.
- 1954 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Blairstown quadrangle1:24000
- 1969 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Grinnell quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
8 since 2008Regional 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/undetermined | 5 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 May 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 29 May 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 85 MM I-29, IOWA |
| 28 April 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 17 April 2017 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 11 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 101-103 MM I29, IOWA |
| 21 March 2017 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 19 March 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 15 March 2018 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
15 since 1994Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1994 | Hail | Blairstown | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Blairstown | $3,000 | Blairstown Fire reports golfball size hail at the jct of 19th Ave & 77th street |
| April 2026 | Hail | Blairstown | - | Report received from Mping. |
| September 2023 | Tornado (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 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blairstown | - | Report relayed though emergency manager. |
| October 2018 | Tornado (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 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blairstown | - | Report was from a local resident using a personal weather instrument. |
| April 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blairstown | - | The Benton County Emergency Manager reported a building blown down along with power lines. a tractor trailer was jack-knifed on Highway 30. |
| August 2011 | Funnel Cloud | Blairstown | - | A spotter located 3 miles southeast of Keystone observed a funnel cloud about 3 miles east of his location. |
| March 2007 | Hail | Blairstown | - | Penny size hail was reported. |
| June 2007 | Flash Flood | Blairstown | - | Water covered parts of 21st Avenue, and many other streets were flooded. |
| July 2006 | Hail | Blairstown | - | Blairstown Fire reports dime then nickel size hail; also 0.70 inches of rain in ten minutes |
| July 2006 | Hail | Blairstown | - | Norway Fire reports nickel size hail at the jct of 23rd Ave & 79th street |
| June 2006 | Hail | Blairstown | - | no account filed |
| September 2000 | Hail | Blairstown | - | 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.
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 Blairstown | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1934122 | 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 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.





