Fern, Iowa
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Beaver Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50642. The Survey maps it on the Holland quadrangle.
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
- 1979 USGS Holland quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Marshalltown quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
9 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 9 fires within 5 miles of Fern between 2006 and 2015, burning about 88 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 | 6 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 April 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 28 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 16 November 2012 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 7 October 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 40 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 24337 160TH ST. DIKE, IA, IA |
| 5 October 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 25 October 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 24 October 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 10550 P AVE PARKERBURG, IA, IA |
| 24 October 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
14 since 2008Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Fern in 14 storm reports between 2008 and 2025: 4 heavy rain, 3 tornado, 3 hail, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2008 | Tornado (EF2) | Fern | $300,000 | This was the initial tornado touchdown point. The tornado continued on into Butler County. |
| August 2010 | Flash Flood | Fern | $25,000 | Water from an unknown creek overflowed onto 120th Street between H Ave and I Ave in northern Grundy County. |
| August 2010 | Flash Flood | Fern | $10,000 | Water of unknown depth running over 120th Street between I Ave and L Ave. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fern | $5,000 | Three inch tree branches blown down and one of them impaled into the ground. |
| April 2013 | Hail | Fern | $5,000 | Quarter size hail covering the ground. |
| August 2025 | Tornado (EFU) | Fern | - | Satellite imagery revealed a track in agricultural fields. No DIs were impacted, resulting in an EF-U rating. |
| July 2022 | Heavy Rain | Fern | - | A report of 5.30 inches of rain relayed by KWWL. |
| July 2020 | Hail | Fern | - | A trained spotter reported quarter sized hail. |
| June 2018 | Heavy Rain | Fern | - | Public reported heavy rainfall of 2.10 inches from late on the 25th though the morning and early afternoon of the 26th. |
| November 2016 | Funnel Cloud | Fern | - | Trained spotter reported a funnel cloud 3 miles west of Stout. |
| November 2016 | Tornado (EF0) | Fern | - | A tornado developed in far northern Grundy County in rural areas southwest of Parkersburg. The tornado was documented by video as it traveled northeast. The funnel was diffuse and intermittent for much of it's track. The tornado crossed into Butler County. |
| July 2015 | Heavy Rain | Fern | - | Trained spotter reported heavy rainfall from thunderstorms earlier today of 2.70 inches. |
| July 2015 | Heavy Rain | Fern | - | Trained spotter reported heavy rainfall of 2.85 inches. |
| April 2013 | Hail | Fern | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lear | 3.4 miles | 9 | |
| Stout | 4.2 miles | 9 | |
| Buck Grove | 4.7 miles | 9 | |
| Holland | 6.1 miles | 9 | |
| Dairyville (historical) | 6.2 miles | 9 | |
| Lincoln | 7.0 miles | 9 | |
| Dike | 7.7 miles | 9 | |
| Grundy Center | 8.5 miles | 9 |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 456576. 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.



