Hard Scratch, Iowa

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1980. It stands in Jefferson Township. It lies in ZIP code area 51546. The Survey maps it on the Hard Scratch quadrangle. It stands 1,214 feet above sea level.

Hard Scratch within Harrison County

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.

1954 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1957 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1978 USGS Hard Scratch quadrangle1:24000
1980 USGS Harlan quadrangle1:100000

Fires near this place

7 since 2014

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Hard Scratch in 2014, burning about 4 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	6
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
6 June 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
16 April 2014	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
12 April 2014	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
12 April 2014	Debris and open burning	1.5 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
12 April 2014	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
30 March 2014	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
24 March 2014	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Harrison County

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Hard Scratch: 2 producers, 1 unknown. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Schemmer Concrete Materials	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Clark Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Schemmer Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Unknown

Every working recorded in Harrison County

Storms near this place

8 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Hard Scratch in 8 storm reports between 2007 and 2024: 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 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 2024	Tornado (EF1)	Hard Scratch	-	A tornado touched down just southwest of Reading Trail, impacting a home along Reading Trail by removing a porch, snapping tree limbs, and destroying a large camper. The tornado proceeded northeast where some trees were damaged along Redwood Avenue. This tornado was rated EF-1 with peak winds estimated at 100 miles per hour. The tornado achieved a peak width of 30 yards, with an average width estimated at 20 yards.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Hard Scratch	-	A personal weather station measured a peak wind gust of 58 mph.
July 2023	Tornado (EF2)	Hard Scratch	-	A tornado developed near Overton Road and 286th Street in Harrison County Iowa. The tornado moved rapidly to the east where it made a direct impact on a home. At this location, the home roof was removed, windows broken, siding ruined, numerous trees snapped, a shed was demolished, and numerous items were thrown up to a half mile downstream. The convergent damage pattern at this location, eyewitness reports of wind direction, along with the 80-yard-wide path of more intense damage gives great confidence that this was a tornado. Winds at this location were estimated at 120 mph based on damage. The tornado moved quickly southeast, causing substantial tree damage with snapped trunks being common along the continued 50 to 100 yard wide track. The tornado moved through neighborhood of acreages along Quentin trail where it snapped many trees but moved in between the homes. The track then became more intermittent for a couple miles before it partially removed the roof of a home along 296th Street and caused additional narrow tree damage for the next two miles. The final damage point that was pretty clearly tornado damage was near 305th and Upton where 3 grain bins were crumpled and blown downstream and a machine shed sustained substantial damage. Beyond this point, the tree damage was sporadic and more evident of the larger scale wind field. Should also note that to the west of this tornado track, there was a debris signature evident on radar, but the damage was much more consistent with a focused downburst or series of downbursts that moved up from the Missouri Valley into the Loess Hills and may have helped to loft light leafy debris. This downburst likely led to the development of the eventual tornado.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Hard Scratch	-	A personal weather station measured a peak wind gust of 58 mph.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Hard Scratch	-	Public personal weather station measured a wind gust of 50 kts.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Hard Scratch	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at over 60 mph blew 2 windows out of a house and knocked down a few branches.
June 2010	Hail	Hard Scratch	-	no account filed
March 2007	Hail	Hard Scratch	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Harrison 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Crisp	2.4 miles	8
Logan	4.5 miles	8
Orton	5.4 miles	8
Willett	6.0 miles	8
Union Burg (historical)	6.4 miles	8
Beebeetown	6.7 miles	8
Persia	8.1 miles	8
Woodbine	8.6 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 Hard Scratch	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q5655392	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 457244. 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.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, 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.