Fonda, Iowa
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Cedar Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50540. The Survey maps it on the Fonda quadrangle. 636 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,220 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresFonda grew from 631 to 636 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 | 631 | |
| 2020 | 636 | +5 (+1%) |
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 Fort Dodge quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Fort Dodge quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Fort Dodge quadrangle1:250000
- 1979 USGS Fonda quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS Humboldt quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Storms near this place
32 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Fonda in 32 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 15 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 4 funnel cloud, 2 tornado. 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 2011 | Tornado (EF3) | Fonda | $10,000,000 | This is a continuation of a large wedge tornado. This tornado started in Sac County, clipped southeast Buena Vista County and continued in Pocahontas County. This tornado continued to produce numerous satellite tornadoes through Pocahontas County. This produced an unusual and varying debris field. |
| May 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fonda | $30,000 | A county sheriff reported straight line winds blew the roof off of a shed. |
| August 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fonda | $25,000 | Walls of brick buildings destroyed on main street and a 40,000 bushel grain bin was destroyed. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fonda | $10,000 | Public reported extensive tree damage in the city of Fonda, via social media. Time radar estimated. |
| April 2002 | Hail | Fonda | $10,000 | no account filed |
| August 2018 | Hail | Fonda | $5,000 | Public reported golf ball sized hail. |
| August 2018 | Hail | Fonda | $5,000 | Trained spotter reported half dollar sized hail. |
| June 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fonda | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 2001 | Hail | Fonda | $3,000 | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fonda | $3,000 | no account filed |
| August 2018 | Hail | Fonda | $2,000 | Public reported golf ball sized hail. |
| June 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fonda | $2,000 | Tree branches were blown down by winds and heavy rainfall. |
| August 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fonda | $2,000 | Off-duty Sioux Falls NWS employee reported strong winds. |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fonda | $1,000 | no account filed |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fonda | - | Delayed report of a tree down on a house and damage to farm buildings. Time of occurrence was estimated from radar. |
| May 2023 | Tornado (EFU) | Fonda | - | Intermittent tornado with well developed funnel on video from storm chaser. No damage indicators were impacted, hence the EFU rating. |
| July 2023 | Hail | Fonda | - | Report via mping. |
| July 2023 | Hail | Fonda | - | Report via mping. |
| April 2022 | Hail | Fonda | - | Report of quarter sized hail via social media. |
| April 2022 | Hail | Fonda | - | Public report of dime and quarter sized hail. |
| April 2022 | Hail | Fonda | - | Quarter sized hail report via mping. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fonda | - | Several tree branches down on farmstead. Report via social media, time estimated via radar. |
| August 2021 | Funnel Cloud | Fonda | - | Location and time estimated by radar. |
| June 2018 | Heavy Rain | Fonda | - | Public relayed report of heavy rainfall of 2.8 inches in Fonda over about the last 17 hours. |
| June 2018 | Hail | Fonda | - | Trained spotter reported quarter sized hail. |
| May 2017 | Hail | Fonda | - | Public reported quarter sized hail in Fonda. |
| April 2017 | Hail | Fonda | - | Trained spotter reported hail just smaller than golf balls. |
| August 2021 | Funnel Cloud | Fonda | - | no account filed |
| August 2021 | Funnel Cloud | Fonda | - | no account filed |
| August 2014 | Funnel Cloud | Fonda | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Fonda | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Fonda | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varina | 6.0 miles | 8 | |
| Rusk | 8.3 miles | 8 | |
| Westview | 13.3 miles | 8 | |
| Palmer | 13.4 miles | 8 | |
| Pocahontas | 14.2 miles | 8 | |
| Blanden (historical) | 15.1 miles | 9 | |
| Ware | 15.1 miles | 8 | |
| Lizard (historical) | 18.1 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 Fonda | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1932990 | 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 456657. 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.
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.




