BlockBefore

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.

Gravity within Taylor County

Population over time

2 figures

Gravity 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.

YearPeople Change
2010188
2020154-34 (-18%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 8 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

15 since 2006

Regional 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 burning6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Equipment and vehicle use3
Natural1
Smoking1

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
12 September 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
7 August 2007Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
10 August 2012Equipment and vehicle use15 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
1 August 2012Smokingunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
26 July 2012Naturalunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
25 July 2012Equipment and vehicle use12 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
29 May 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
9 April 2006Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Taylor County

Storms near this place

41 since 1993

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2011Thunderstorm WindGravity$150,000Tree 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 2007Thunderstorm WindGravity$100,000no account filed
August 2011HailGravity$50,000Baseball size hail reported.
June 2008Tornado (EF0)Gravity$50,000The 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 1993Thunderstorm WindGravity$50,000no account filed
September 1993HailGravity$50,000no account filed
June 2010Thunderstorm WindGravity$30,000At least part of a roof was blown off of a home.
May 2011Flash FloodGravity$15,000A bridge scour occurred on Highway 148 10 miles north of Bedford.
August 2015HailGravity$10,000Trained spotter reported ping pong ball size hail.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindGravity$10,000High winds downed several power lines in Gravity.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindGravity$10,000Winds were estimated at 55 MPH sustained, with gusts to 65 MPH. Visibility was reduced to zero in heavy rain.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindGravity$10,000Winds gusts were estimated by trained spotters.
August 2011HailGravity$10,000no account filed
July 1999LightningGravity$10,000no account filed
April 1996Thunderstorm WindGravity$10,000no account filed
May 2013HailGravity$5,000no account filed
April 2011HailGravity$5,000no account filed
March 2007HailGravity$5,000no account filed
March 2007HailGravity$5,000no account filed
March 2007HailGravity$5,000no account filed
May 2004HailGravity$5,000no account filed
August 2004Thunderstorm WindGravity$5,000no account filed
April 1994HailGravity$5,000no account filed
May 2019Thunderstorm WindGravity$2,000Law 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 2007Thunderstorm WindGravity$2,000no account filed
August 2003HailGravity$2,000no account filed
June 2000Thunderstorm WindGravity$2,000no account filed
April 1995HailGravity$2,000no account filed
June 2010HailGravity$1,000no account filed
March 2005HailGravity$1,000no account filed
April 1998HailGravity$1,000no account filed
June 1994Tornado (F1)Gravity$500no account filed
April 2018HailGravity-Public relayed pictures of dime to quarter sized hail.
June 2015HailGravity-Trained spotter reported quarter to golf ball sized hail.
August 2015HailGravity-Emergency Manager reported quarter sized hail NW of Bedford. Report was relayed via amateur radio.
June 2008Heavy RainGravity-One inch of rain fell in the past 30 minutes.
May 2014HailGravity-no account filed
March 2009HailGravity-no account filed
August 2004HailGravity-no account filed
May 2001HailGravity-no account filed
September 1999Tornado (F0)Gravity-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Taylor 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
Ladoga3.0 miles11
Sharpsburg6.1 miles8
Bedford6.6 miles12
Bushville6.6 miles8
Conway6.7 miles12
Merle Junction8.1 miles8
Guss8.3 miles8
New Market8.5 miles11

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 GravityAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1932559The 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.