Clarion, Iowa
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Lincoln Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50525. The Survey maps it on the Clarion quadrangle. 2,810 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,171 feet above sea level.
On record in Clarion
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 3 records
Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railroad Passenger Stationlisted 1988
Wright County Courthouselisted 1981- Cornelia Lake Bridgelisted 1998
Population over time
2 figuresClarion fell from 2,850 to 2,810 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 | 2,850 | |
| 2020 | 2,810 | -40 (-1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 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.
- 1954 USGS Waterloo quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1955 USGS Waterloo quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1978 USGS Clarion quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Iowa Falls quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
1 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Clarion in 2006, burning under an acre 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 | 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 December 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Clarion: 3 producers, 1 past producer. 3 still produce. What was taken out: 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.
Storms near this place
50 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Clarion in 50 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 16 hail, 16 thunderstorm wind, 10 heavy rain, 4 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 2007 | Flash Flood | Clarion | $100,000 | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Flood | Clarion | $75,000 | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Flash Flood | Clarion | $50,000 | Highway 69 was under water 4 miles south of Belmond and Highway 3 was under water 1 mile west of Clarion. |
| July 2013 | Hail | Clarion | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Flood | Clarion | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | $25,000 | Public reported power lines and tree limbs down throughout town. Report via WOI and time radar estimated. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | $25,000 | A four foot tree was down on a house and car in the 1000 block of S. Main St. |
| August 1998 | Hail | Clarion | $25,000 | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Flash Flood | Clarion | $15,000 | County Road R38 and a few other county roads were closed due to flooding. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | $15,000 | Five evergreen trees 18 to 24 inches in diameter were uprooted. Also 2 trees were uprooted on the northwest edge of Dows. |
| July 2013 | Hail | Clarion | $10,000 | A trained spotter reports mostly dime to quarter size hail, with the largest measured at 1.5 inches. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | $10,000 | Trees and power lines reported down in Clarion. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | $10,000 | Trees and power lines reported down. |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Hail | Clarion | $10,000 | no account filed |
| April 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | $5,000 | Damage to a farm out building. |
| August 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | $5,000 | A healthy tree 24 inches in diameter was snapped near the base by strong winds. |
| May 2011 | Hail | Clarion | $5,000 | Quarter size hail reported in the town of Clarion. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | $5,000 | Large trees were downed, blocking two lanes of traffic. |
| June 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | $5,000 | no account filed |
| September 2001 | Hail | Clarion | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2013 | Hail | Clarion | $3,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | $2,000 | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | $2,000 | no account filed |
| August 1998 | Hail | Clarion | $2,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Clarion | $1,000 | no account filed |
| September 2025 | Hail | Clarion | - | Spotter reports quarter sized hail fell just north of the Clarion city limits. Time estimated. |
| July 2024 | Flash Flood | Clarion | - | Estimated three to four inches of water and rising over Nelson Avenue north of Highway 3 and east of Clarion. |
| July 2024 | Heavy Rain | Clarion | - | Personal weather station report of 3.1 inches of rain. |
| April 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | - | Peak gust at Clarion. |
| August 2021 | Heavy Rain | Clarion | - | A 24 hour rain total of 3.27 inches. |
| August 2018 | Heavy Rain | Clarion | - | Public reported heavy rainfall of 3.3 inches. |
| September 2018 | Heavy Rain | Clarion | - | CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 3.40 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| May 2017 | Hail | Clarion | - | Trained spotter reported nickel sized hail at the Iowa Specialty Hospital. Power reported out at the time as well. |
| May 2016 | Heavy Rain | Clarion | - | Public reported heavy rainfall of 2.50 inches for a storm total. Reported via social media. |
| May 2016 | Heavy Rain | Clarion | - | Public reported heavy rainfall of 2.50 inches, via social media. |
| September 2016 | Heavy Rain | Clarion | - | Coop observer recorded heavy rainfall of 3.82 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| August 2016 | Heavy Rain | Clarion | - | Public reported storm total heavy rainfall of 3.00 inches. |
| May 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | - | Reported at the Clarion AWOS site. |
| June 2010 | Heavy Rain | Clarion | - | The Wright County Sheriffs office reported highway 3 east and west of Clarion beginning to flood, along with county road K north of town. |
| June 2008 | Heavy Rain | Clarion | - | Rainfall of 1.5 inches. |
| May 2004 | Tornado (F0) | Clarion | - | Brief touchdown in open area northwest of Clarion. |
| August 2018 | Hail | Clarion | - | no account filed |
| August 2014 | Hail | Clarion | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clarion | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Hail | Clarion | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Tornado (F0) | Clarion | - | no account filed |
| September 1998 | Hail | Clarion | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Hail | Clarion | - | 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 Clarion | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q548653 | 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 455428. 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.



