Cromwell, Iowa
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1993. It stands in Douglas Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50801. The Survey maps it on the Creston West quadrangle. 105 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,286 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresCromwell fell from 107 to 105 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 | 107 | |
| 2020 | 105 | -2 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 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 Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1981 USGS Creston West quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Creston quadrangle1:100000
- 1993 USGS Creston quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
20 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 20 fires within 5 miles of Cromwell between 2007 and 2020, burning about 133 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 | 7 |
| Debris and open burning | 5 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 3 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 September 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 15 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 17 September 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 12 August 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 18 July 2012 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 7 April 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 April 2013 | Debris and open burning | 75 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 13 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 1604 TULIP AVE, IA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
19 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cromwell in 19 storm reports between 1995 and 2024: 6 tornado, 5 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 3 heavy rain. The reports record 2 injuries. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2012 | Tornado (EF2) | Cromwell | 2 hurt, $5,000,000 | This tornado continued in from Adams county. NWS storm survey confirmed a strong EF2 tornado. It entered Union county just southwest of Cromwell and tracked east-northeast through the far northwest portion of Creston. The Greater Regional Medical Center and Southwest Community College sustained EF2 damage with the worst occurring to the Green Hills Education Center. The tornado continued tracking northeast and damaged a few farmsteads northeast of Creston. |
| April 2024 | Tornado (EF2) | Cromwell | $300,000 | This tornado entered Union County from Adams County south of Cromwell. The tornado moved northeast through western Union county remaining in mostly rural locations. It did impact a few farmsteads along the way with mostly tree and outbuilding damage. The tornado moved into the far northwest portions of Creston producing EF2 damage to a multiple story townhouse along with taking down several trees. The tornado weakened quickly after this point with some minor damage observed at the atletic fields of the high school. The tornado then moved into open farmland north of Creston before dissipating. |
| September 2010 | Flash Flood | Cromwell | $250,000 | Numerous roads flooded from Creston west to the county line. Rainfall reported of 4 to 6 inches. |
| May 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cromwell | $100,000 | no account filed |
| October 2018 | Tornado (EF1) | Cromwell | $40,000 | This tornado developed between Creston and Cromwell in western Union county and traveled on a somewhat unusual northwest path. Tornado was mostly in open rural cropland for nearly two miles producing only crop damage. However, the tornado encountered farmsteads along Clover Avenue about one half mile south of 170th Street. A garage was destroyed on the west side of the road and was rated EF1 damage given generally poor construction. Additional EF1 damage was observed with the nearby house with a portion of the roof and truss structure removed. Tree damage was observed across the road at an adjacent house. Additional minor damage was found about one quarter mile farther up the road with the last damage noted north of 170th Street on the west side of the road where a few roof panels were blown off an old metal shed. |
| May 2010 | Hail | Cromwell | $5,000 | Quarter size hail covering the ground. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Cromwell | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cromwell | $2,000 | no account filed |
| May 2024 | Tornado (EF0) | Cromwell | $1,000 | This tornado moved into Union County from Adams County just to the northwest of Cromwell. The tornado impacted a few trees on the northwest edge of Cromwell and then dissipated shortly thereafter. |
| April 2012 | Hail | Cromwell | $1,000 | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Cromwell | $1,000 | no account filed |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cromwell | - | Delayed report of tree limbs down. |
| March 2022 | Tornado (EFU) | Cromwell | - | This tornado moved into Union county from Adams county. The tornado remained in rural cropland for its short path in Adams county. Not encountering any damage indicators in the county, it was rated EFU. |
| October 2021 | Heavy Rain | Cromwell | - | A 48 hour rain total of 3.67 inches. |
| June 2019 | Heavy Rain | Cromwell | - | Trained spotter reported 2 inches of rain in about 30 minutes. The rain begin about 7pm. |
| June 2019 | Hail | Cromwell | - | Trained spotter reported hail that lasted about 5 minutes, with largest stones the size of quarters. |
| August 2015 | Heavy Rain | Cromwell | - | Public reported heavy rainfall of 3.50 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| March 2011 | Tornado (EF0) | Cromwell | - | Tornado spotted with debris cloud. |
| May 1996 | Funnel Cloud | Cromwell | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creston | 5.5 miles | 9 | |
| Kent | 6.0 miles | 8 | |
| East Creston | 6.8 miles | 9 | |
| Spaulding | 9.8 miles | 9 | |
| Afton | 14.0 miles | 11 | |
| Shannon City | 14.2 miles | 8 | |
| Arispe | 14.3 miles | 8 | |
| Shepard (historical) | 16.7 miles | 8 |
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 Cromwell | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1935077 | 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 455725. 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.





