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Blakesburg, Iowa

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1981. It stands in Adams Township. It lies in ZIP code area 52536. The Survey maps it on the Blakesburg quadrangle. 274 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 912 feet above sea level.

Blakesburg within Wapello County

Population over time

2 figures

Blakesburg fell from 296 to 274 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
2010296
2020274-22 (-7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 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

1 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Blakesburg in 2018, burning about 3 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/undetermined1

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
26 April 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Wapello County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Blakesburg: 2 past producers. 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Drill HoleZincPast ProducerSphalerite
Drill HoleZincPast ProducerSphalerite

Every working recorded in Wapello County

Storms near this place

18 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Blakesburg in 18 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 7 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 5 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2018Thunderstorm WindBlakesburg$100,000Trained spotter reported that the small town of Blakesburg had a lot of tree damage, including several trees falling on houses. Extent of damage was unknown at the time. Report came via social media.
May 1996Thunderstorm WindBlakesburg$30,000no account filed
May 2014HailBlakesburg$25,000no account filed
May 1998HailBlakesburg$20,000no account filed
April 1996HailBlakesburg$10,000no account filed
April 2014Thunderstorm WindBlakesburg$5,000Reported by the Blakesburg fire department.
June 2002HailBlakesburg$5,000no account filed
August 2018Thunderstorm WindBlakesburg$2,000Trained spotter reported 60 to 70 mph wind gusts. Several large trees and 2 to 6 inch diameter tree limbs were down as a result. Report came in via social media.
August 2004Thunderstorm WindBlakesburg$2,000no account filed
June 2023HailBlakesburg$1,000Trained spotter reported at least quarter sized hail. Also noted flag pole snapped in front yard.
May 2011HailBlakesburg$1,000no account filed
July 2024Heavy RainBlakesburg-Report of 3.38 inches of rain.
November 2022Heavy RainBlakesburg-A 24 hour rain total of 2.74 inches.
September 2022Heavy RainBlakesburg-A 24 hour rain total of 3.46 inches.
September 2022Heavy RainBlakesburg-A 24 hour rain total of 3.69 inches.
June 2021Heavy RainBlakesburg-Mesonet report of 4.02 inches of rain.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindBlakesburg-Blakesburg Fire department reported heavy tree damage in the area with minor damage to homes with soffits torn off.
May 2004HailBlakesburg-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Wapello 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
Willard3.8 miles7
Munterville5.1 miles7
Bidwell6.4 miles7
Ormanville8.8 miles10
Dudley8.9 miles7
Chillicothe10.2 miles7
Pickwick11.9 miles9
Ottumwa Junction11.9 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 BlakesburgAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q571091The 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 454679. 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.