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.
Population over time
2 figuresEmerson 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 438 | |
| 2020 | 403 | -35 (-8%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 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
- 1978 USGS Emerson quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
3 since 2013Regional 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 burning | 2 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 31 March 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 18 January 2013 | Debris and open burning | 75 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
19 since 1999Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Emerson | $20,000 | A 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 2026 | Hail | Emerson | - | Public mPING report of hail measured at 1.00 inch in diameter. |
| April 2026 | Thunderstorm Wind | Emerson | - | Personal weather station measured wind gust of 59 mph. |
| March 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Emerson | - | Public reported roof damage and a flipped trampoline. |
| March 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Emerson | - | Emergency Manager reported downed powerlines and an outbuilding destroyed. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Emerson | - | Emergency management reported 2 inch tree limbs downed in town. |
| April 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Emerson | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at close to 60 mph downed a few large trees in the area. |
| March 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Emerson | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph by a NWS employee along with nickel-size hail. |
| March 2011 | Hail | Emerson | - | Nickel-size hail was accompanied by thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 60 mph near Emerson. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Emerson | - | A trained spotter estimated thunderstorm wind gusts of around 60 mph. |
| June 2008 | Tornado (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 1999 | Flash Flood | Emerson | - | 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 2015 | Hail | Emerson | - | no account filed |
| April 2010 | Hail | Emerson | - | no account filed |
| September 2008 | Hail | Emerson | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Emerson | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Emerson | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Emerson | - | no account filed |
| September 1999 | Hail | Emerson | - | 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 Emerson | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1933175 | 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 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.




