Gravity, Iowa
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Washington Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50848. The Survey maps it on the Gravity quadrangle. 154 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,201 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresGravity fell from 188 to 154 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 | 188 | |
| 2020 | 154 | -34 (-18%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 8 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.
- 1955 USGS Nebraska City quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Nebraska City quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Nebraska City quadrangle1:250000
- 1980 USGS Gravity quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Mount Ayr quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
15 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 15 fires within 5 miles of Gravity between 2006 and 2018, burning about 112 acres in total. 1 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 | 6 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 September 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 7 August 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 10 August 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 15 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 August 2012 | Smoking | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 26 July 2012 | Natural | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 25 July 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 12 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 29 May 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 April 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
41 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Gravity in 41 storm reports between 1993 and 2019: 23 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gravity | $150,000 | Tree limbs up to 12 inches in diameter and power lines were down along a line from Bedford to Gravity. Extensive tree damage along Highway 2 around Bedford and a roof was blown off of a business in Bedford. Siding was stripped off of the north and west side of a house there. |
| May 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gravity | $100,000 | no account filed |
| August 2011 | Hail | Gravity | $50,000 | Baseball size hail reported. |
| June 2008 | Tornado (EF0) | Gravity | $50,000 | The Taylor County Emergency Manager reports tornado damage. This was relayed via HAM radio. Windows were blown out of houses and numerous trees were down and twisted. |
| September 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gravity | $50,000 | no account filed |
| September 1993 | Hail | Gravity | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gravity | $30,000 | At least part of a roof was blown off of a home. |
| May 2011 | Flash Flood | Gravity | $15,000 | A bridge scour occurred on Highway 148 10 miles north of Bedford. |
| August 2015 | Hail | Gravity | $10,000 | Trained spotter reported ping pong ball size hail. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gravity | $10,000 | High winds downed several power lines in Gravity. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gravity | $10,000 | Winds were estimated at 55 MPH sustained, with gusts to 65 MPH. Visibility was reduced to zero in heavy rain. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gravity | $10,000 | Winds gusts were estimated by trained spotters. |
| August 2011 | Hail | Gravity | $10,000 | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Lightning | Gravity | $10,000 | no account filed |
| April 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gravity | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2013 | Hail | Gravity | $5,000 | no account filed |
| April 2011 | Hail | Gravity | $5,000 | no account filed |
| March 2007 | Hail | Gravity | $5,000 | no account filed |
| March 2007 | Hail | Gravity | $5,000 | no account filed |
| March 2007 | Hail | Gravity | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Gravity | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gravity | $5,000 | no account filed |
| April 1994 | Hail | Gravity | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gravity | $2,000 | Law enforcement reported a large tree down near the intersection of Franklin Ave and 175th St northwest of Bedford. This is a delayed report and time estimated from radar. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gravity | $2,000 | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Hail | Gravity | $2,000 | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gravity | $2,000 | no account filed |
| April 1995 | Hail | Gravity | $2,000 | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Gravity | $1,000 | no account filed |
| March 2005 | Hail | Gravity | $1,000 | no account filed |
| April 1998 | Hail | Gravity | $1,000 | no account filed |
| June 1994 | Tornado (F1) | Gravity | $500 | no account filed |
| April 2018 | Hail | Gravity | - | Public relayed pictures of dime to quarter sized hail. |
| June 2015 | Hail | Gravity | - | Trained spotter reported quarter to golf ball sized hail. |
| August 2015 | Hail | Gravity | - | Emergency Manager reported quarter sized hail NW of Bedford. Report was relayed via amateur radio. |
| June 2008 | Heavy Rain | Gravity | - | One inch of rain fell in the past 30 minutes. |
| May 2014 | Hail | Gravity | - | no account filed |
| March 2009 | Hail | Gravity | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Hail | Gravity | - | no account filed |
| May 2001 | Hail | Gravity | - | no account filed |
| September 1999 | Tornado (F0) | Gravity | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ladoga | 3.0 miles | 11 | |
| Sharpsburg | 6.1 miles | 8 | |
| Bedford | 6.6 miles | 12 | |
| Bushville | 6.6 miles | 8 | |
| Conway | 6.7 miles | 12 | |
| Merle Junction | 8.1 miles | 8 | |
| Guss | 8.3 miles | 8 | |
| New Market | 8.5 miles | 11 |
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 Gravity | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1932559 | 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 457083. 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.




