Houghton, Iowa
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1958 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Cedar Township. It lies in ZIP code area 52625. The Survey maps it on the Salem quadrangle. 141 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 715 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresHoughton fell from 146 to 141 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 | 146 | |
| 2020 | 141 | -5 (-3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 11 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.
- 1958 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Salem quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1990 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
3 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Houghton between 2009 and 2011, burning about 12 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 1672 150TH AVE, NW OF DONNELLSON, IOWA |
| 15 April 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 7 October 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 2015 150TH ST. WEST POINT, IA, IA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
15 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Houghton in 15 storm reports between 1999 and 2024: 5 thunderstorm wind, 5 flash flood, 3 hail, 1 flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2011 | Flash Flood | Houghton | $250,000 | Heavy rains caused some flash flooding and flooding across much of Lee County during the early morning of June 15. Several roads and yards were flooded in Keokuk. In Fort Madison, a storm sewer collapsed and a basement flooded. The beginnings of a retaining wall collapsed along Mississippi River Road just south of Sandusky, IA. A mudslide occurred near 275th Ave and Sandusky. Belfast Rd was closed due to flooding in several spots near Croton, IA. Highway 16 was closed due to flood waters between W55 and Highway 218 near Houghton, IA. Highway 136 was closed due to water flowing over the road near the Iowa-Missouri state line. |
| July 2003 | Hail | Houghton | $60,000 | no account filed |
| February 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Houghton | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Houghton | - | A public report of 67 MPH measured wind gust on a personal weather station just northwest of Houghton. |
| June 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Houghton | - | A couple trees were blown down, and there was some siding damage at home. |
| May 2019 | Tornado (EF1) | Houghton | - | EF1 tornado touched down south of Houghton striking a metal building. The roof was removed from the building and the winds were estimated at 100 MPH. |
| February 2017 | Hail | Houghton | - | Law enforcement reported quarter size hail falling for a 10 minute period. |
| May 2009 | Flash Flood | Houghton | - | Heavy rains and subsequent flooding forced the closure of Highway 16 just west of Houghton, IA during the afternoon of May 15. This report was relayed by the NWS in Des Moines. |
| June 2008 | Flash Flood | Houghton | - | Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding of parts of Lee County during the early morning hours of June 13. The flood waters forced the closure of Highway 16 near Houghton, IA. |
| August 2007 | Flash Flood | Houghton | - | Flood waters covered some roads across the western part of Lee County forcing the closure of 110th Street near Houghton, IA and parts of Highway 16 west of Highway 27. The Des Moines River level along Croton Road near Croton was running high, threatening the closure of Croton Rd. |
| June 2002 | Flash Flood | Houghton | - | County Road W55 covered with up to a foot of water and closed. |
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Houghton | - | Thunderstorm winds downed trees. Reported by trained spotter. |
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Houghton | - | Thunderstorm winds damaged grain bins. Reported by trained spotter. |
| June 2000 | Flood | Houghton | - | Water covered portions of Highway 16, one half mile west of Highway 218. |
| April 2002 | Hail | Houghton | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Russellville (historical) | 2.3 miles | 11 | |
| Mount Hamill | 2.3 miles | 11 | |
| La Crew | 3.6 miles | 12 | |
| Pilot Grove | 3.8 miles | 11 | |
| Saint Paul | 4.7 miles | 11 | |
| Sharon | 5.0 miles | 12 | |
| Big Mound | 5.5 miles | 11 | |
| Primrose | 7.7 miles | 12 |
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 Houghton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1931815 | 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 457683. 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.





