Hartley, Iowa
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Hartley Township. It lies in ZIP code area 51346. The Survey maps it on the Hartley quadrangle. 1,605 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,463 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresHartley fell from 1,672 to 1,605 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 | 1,672 | |
| 2020 | 1,605 | -67 (-4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 7 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 Fairmont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:250000
- 1970 USGS Hartley quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Iowa Great Lakes quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Mines and quarries near this place
5 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Hartley: 4 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: 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.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bruegmann Park | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Kuehl Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Ralphs Sand and Gravel | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
44 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Hartley in 44 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 25 hail, 13 thunderstorm wind, 4 flash flood, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hartley | $50,000 | no account filed |
| August 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hartley | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hartley | $10,000 | Thunderstorm winds caused widespread tree damage, including whole trees down. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hartley | $5,000 | Thunderstorm winds blew off part of the roof of a machine shed. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hartley | $5,000 | Thunderstorm winds destroyed a machine shed. |
| June 1994 | Hail | Hartley | $5,000 | no account filed |
| September 2025 | Hail | Hartley | - | Hail was mostly pea to dime size, but several stones were from quarter up to golf ball size. |
| June 2024 | Flash Flood | Hartley | - | Three to five inches of rain late evening resulted in flash flooding. U.S. Highway 18 was inundated and impassible in multiple locations between Sheldon and Hartley. Multiple vehicles were submerged with at least one water rescue performed. For a more comprehensive description of flood damage, please see other entries for areal and river flooding for O'Brien County. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hartley | - | Power poles leaning on the west edge of town. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hartley | - | A thunderstorm wind gust of 79 mph was measured by personal weather station KIAHARTL8 5 miles west of Hartley. Crop damage is an estimate from insured losses. Information provided by the United States Department of Agriculture. |
| May 2022 | Hail | Hartley | - | Quarter to half-dollar size hail fell for a few minutes. |
| September 2018 | Flash Flood | Hartley | - | Significant street flooding on Central Avenue in Hartley. |
| September 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hartley | - | Extensive tree damage occurred at a property on the south side of Hartley, with numerous large limbs in excess of 6 inches in diameter broken and a few trees split due to strong winds. A two-story home experienced broken windows and some minor roof and siding damage. |
| June 2018 | Flash Flood | Hartley | - | Torrential rainfall was localized across parts of northwest Iowa. Hartley measured 6 to 6.5 inches rainfall in just 2 to 3 hours, which produced widespread flooding within the city and water overrunning U.S. Highway 18 two miles east of Hartley. Numerous basements were inundated with water, which stood from 1 to 3 feet in depth in much of town. |
| June 2018 | Flash Flood | Hartley | - | Rainfall of 6 to 6.5 inches resulted in significant flooding through much of Hartley with water standing up to 3 feet in depth. Storm sewers backed up all over town, with water encroaching into many basements. |
| August 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hartley | - | Thunderstorm winds caused minor tree damage. |
| September 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hartley | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down limbs and a few power poles, and damaged corn crops. The amount of damage was not known. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Hartley | - | Nickel size hail was accompanied by heavy rain. |
| May 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hartley | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several branches blown down. |
| September 2010 | Hail | Hartley | - | Large hail covered the ground to ankle deep. |
| September 2010 | Hail | Hartley | - | Small hail falling for 15 to 20 minutes increased to quarter size just before ending. |
| June 2010 | Hail | Hartley | - | Golf ball size hail caused an unknown amount of damage to vehicles, causing dents and cracked windows. |
| May 2005 | Tornado (F0) | Hartley | - | A brief tornado caused no reported damage. |
| May 2004 | Tornado (F0) | Hartley | - | A brief tornado caused no reported damage. |
| July 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hartley | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including two to four inch diameter branches broken off. |
| June 2024 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| July 2023 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| June 2020 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| August 2017 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| May 2009 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| May 2009 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Hartley | - | no account filed |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hartley | - | 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.
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 Hartley | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1932272 | 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 457297. 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.
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.



