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Ellston, Iowa

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Union Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50074. The Survey maps it on the Ellston quadrangle. 19 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,224 feet above sea level.

Ellston within Ringgold County

Population over time

3 figures

Ellston fell from 57 to 19 between 2000 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
200057
201043-14 (-25%)
202019-24 (-56%)

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 2013

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Ellston in 2013, burning about 30 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
Debris and open burning1

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
21 March 2013Debris and open burning30 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Ringgold County

Storms near this place

17 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ellston in 17 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 5 heavy rain, 4 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning. 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
April 2009Tornado (EF0)Ellston$100,000Brief tornado about 1.25 miles long. Track about 30 miles wide. The EF0 rating was based on pictures and coordination with the Emergency Manager.
July 2008Flash FloodEllston$100,000Nine inches of rain has fallen so far. In the Sun Valley Lake Area, water was over the sea wall, boats were floating off their lifts. Many roads were flooded. Worst flooding seen in years with houses threatened.
May 1998Thunderstorm WindEllston$75,000no account filed
June 2010HailEllston$25,000Hail lasted over 20 minutes with the largest hail falling for 5 minutes.
April 2008LightningEllston$25,000Lightning struck a house and started it on fire in the Sun Valley area.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindEllston$10,000Numerous branches down with winds estimated at 60 to 70 MPH.
April 2010HailEllston$5,000no account filed
May 1996HailEllston$5,000no account filed
June 2008Thunderstorm WindEllston$1,000A few small limbs were downed.
April 2008HailEllston$1,000no account filed
June 2008Thunderstorm WindEllston$1,000no account filed
June 2025Heavy RainEllston-Storm total precipitation of 6.34 inches from a personal weather station. Still raining.
June 2025Heavy RainEllston-Storm total rainfall of 8.33 inches measured by a personal weather station. Most occurred since 7 pm the evening of June 23.
June 2025Heavy RainEllston-Storm total rainfall of 7.79 inches measured by personal weather station. Most occurred since 7 pm the evening of June 23.
August 2016Heavy RainEllston-Emergency manager received report of heavy rainfall of 3.00 inches storm total. Exact end time of report unknown.
July 2008Heavy RainEllston-KCCI television reported that a trained spotter had 9 inches of rain so far this morning.
May 2013Funnel CloudEllston-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Ringgold 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
Beaconsfield3.8 miles8
Tingley4.7 miles8
Kellerton9.5 miles12
Mount Ayr11.0 miles12
Mortimer (historical)11.6 miles8
Knowlton11.9 miles8
Diagonal12.6 miles8
Wanamaker13.4 miles12

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 EllstonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1933188The 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 456323. 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.