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Emerson, Iowa

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Indian Creek Township. It lies in ZIP code area 51533. The Survey maps it on the Emerson quadrangle. 403 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,056 feet above sea level.

Emerson within Mills County

Population over time

2 figures

Emerson fell from 438 to 403 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
2010438
2020403-35 (-8%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 9 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

3 since 2013

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Emerson between 2013 and 2014, burning about 107 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 burning2
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
18 April 2014Debris and open burning2.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
31 March 2014Missing data/not specified/undetermined30 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
18 January 2013Debris and open burning75 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Mills County

Storms near this place

19 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Emerson in 19 storm reports between 1999 and 2026: 9 hail, 7 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 2001Tornado (F0)Emerson$20,000A small line of mini-supercell thunderstorms moved across extreme eastern Nebraska and southwest Iowa this day. Some of these cells produced short-lived and relatively small tornadoes that would briefly touch down, lift and then produce another tornado within a half hour or so. This tornado produced damage to 2 farmsteads, damaging a pole shed, trailers, a machine shed as well as downing a few trees and power lines. This particular mini-supercell also produced the tornado that touched down northwest of Carson and then eventually northwest of Tennant, Iowa.
March 2026HailEmerson-Public mPING report of hail measured at 1.00 inch in diameter.
April 2026Thunderstorm WindEmerson-Personal weather station measured wind gust of 59 mph.
March 2022Thunderstorm WindEmerson-Public reported roof damage and a flipped trampoline.
March 2022Thunderstorm WindEmerson-Emergency Manager reported downed powerlines and an outbuilding destroyed.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindEmerson-Emergency management reported 2 inch tree limbs downed in town.
April 2012Thunderstorm WindEmerson-Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at close to 60 mph downed a few large trees in the area.
March 2011Thunderstorm WindEmerson-Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph by a NWS employee along with nickel-size hail.
March 2011HailEmerson-Nickel-size hail was accompanied by thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 60 mph near Emerson.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindEmerson-A trained spotter estimated thunderstorm wind gusts of around 60 mph.
June 2008Tornado (EF1)Emerson-This tornado tracked from 5 miles southwest of Emerson to 1 mile south of town. The tornado caused significant damage to an acreage about 2 miles south of Emerson. Siding and part of the roof were torn from a house, and windows were broken with large limbs and branches strewn about. Two barns and a machine shed were also destroyed. Other tree and farm outbuilding damage was noted along the tornadoes path.
August 1999Flash FloodEmerson-Indian Creek was forced out of its banks by heavy rain during the morning hours 8/7/99. Although heavier amounts were reported north and northwest of Mills county, rainfall of 2 to 5 inches likely fell over much of the county.
May 2015HailEmerson-no account filed
April 2010HailEmerson-no account filed
September 2008HailEmerson-no account filed
June 2008HailEmerson-no account filed
May 2004HailEmerson-no account filed
June 2000HailEmerson-no account filed
September 1999HailEmerson-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Mills 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
Hastings5.2 miles9
Climax6.3 miles8
White Cloud6.8 miles8
Strahan6.9 miles8
Solomon8.0 miles8
Clark8.6 miles8
Henderson8.6 miles9
Malvern9.8 miles10

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 EmersonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1933175The 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 456360. 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.