Humeston, Iowa
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1934 and the latest in 1982. It stands in Richman Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50123. The Survey maps it on the Humeston quadrangle. 465 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,102 feet above sea level.
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Population over time
2 figuresHumeston fell from 494 to 465 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 | 494 | |
| 2020 | 465 | -29 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 12 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.
- 1934 USGS Corydon quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1934 USGS Humeston quadrangle1:48000
- 1937 USGS Corydon quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Centerville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Centerville quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Centerville quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Leon quadrangle1:100000
- 1982 USGS Humeston quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
27 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 27 fires within 5 miles of Humeston between 2006 and 2019, burning about 642 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 | 14 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 September 2012 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 August 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.9 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 August 2012 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 22 August 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 10 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 21 May 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 May 2013 | Debris and open burning | 50 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 April 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 6 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | S OF 60TH AND VALE IN WAYNE CO, IA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
49 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Humeston in 49 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 22 hail, 11 heavy rain, 10 thunderstorm wind, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2007 | Flood | Humeston | $250,000 | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Flash Flood | Humeston | $200,000 | Department of Transportation reported multiple secondary roads flooded. Delayed report and time estimated from radar. |
| March 2022 | Tornado (EF2) | Humeston | $100,000 | The tornado continued into Wayne county from Decatur county. Once again, this tornado remained in mostly rural areas of the county, bypassing Humeston just to the north. Power poles snapped along J22 west of Humeston produced EF2 damage and there was damage to outbuildings just north of Humeston along Highway 65. However, the bulk of the path interacted with either empty cropland or woodland areas with numerous trees being toppled. The tornado passsed into Lucas county after crossing Watrous Road east of 70th Street. |
| July 2009 | Flash Flood | Humeston | $50,000 | Several gravel roads washed out. |
| June 2002 | Hail | Humeston | $50,000 | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Humeston | $30,000 | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Humeston | $20,000 | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Humeston | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Humeston | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Humeston | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Humeston | $5,000 | Public reported multiple tree limbs down in excess of 3 inches in diameter. This is a delayed report. |
| May 2013 | Hail | Humeston | $5,000 | Social Media report of quarter to half dollar size hail in Humeston. |
| June 2005 | Hail | Humeston | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Humeston | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Humeston | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Humeston | $3,000 | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Humeston | $3,000 | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Humeston | $3,000 | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Humeston | $2,000 | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Humeston | $2,000 | no account filed |
| November 2005 | Hail | Humeston | $1,000 | no account filed |
| November 2005 | Hail | Humeston | $1,000 | no account filed |
| May 2024 | Hail | Humeston | - | Delayed report from media of two inch hail near Humeston. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Humeston | - | Relayed from broadcast media of a social media report of tennis ball size hail near Humeston. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Humeston | - | Social media report of hail, in which the size was estimated. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Humeston | - | Delayed report with picture of at least baseball sized hail on the west side of Humeston. |
| March 2022 | Tornado (EFU) | Humeston | - | This tornado crossed into Wayne county from Decatur county. This tornado was documented by a storm chaser and also from high resolution satellite imagery. The short path in this county did not impact any damage indicators, hence the EFU rating. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Humeston | - | Fire department reports power pole snapped at base and with another snapped three fourths of the way up. Time estimated via radar. |
| July 2021 | Heavy Rain | Humeston | - | Report of 2.22 inches of rain in 2 hours. |
| July 2021 | Heavy Rain | Humeston | - | A 24 hour rain total of 2.67 inches. |
| July 2020 | Heavy Rain | Humeston | - | A trained spotter reported a 24 hour rain total of 2.21 inches. |
| September 2019 | Heavy Rain | Humeston | - | Trained spotter reported a 24 hour heavy rainfall total of 2.09 inches. The two full day total, Saturday and Sunday, was 2.79 inches. |
| June 2019 | Hail | Humeston | - | Public reported quarter sized hail. |
| June 2019 | Hail | Humeston | - | Public reported quarter sized hail. This is a delayed report. |
| August 2019 | Heavy Rain | Humeston | - | Trained spotter, via social media, reported heavy rainfall of 3.43 inches. Beginning and ending times estimated from radar. |
| May 2018 | Hail | Humeston | - | Public reported golf ball sized hail. |
| May 2018 | Hail | Humeston | - | Trained spotter reported half dollar sized hail. |
| September 2018 | Heavy Rain | Humeston | - | Trained spotter reported heavy rainfall of 2.24 inches. Due to database entry limitation, beginning time coded as midnight CST. |
| October 2018 | Heavy Rain | Humeston | - | Public reported heavy rainfall of 2.40 inches. Beginning time estimated from radar. |
| June 2016 | Hail | Humeston | - | Report via social media. |
| July 2016 | Heavy Rain | Humeston | - | Public reported heavy rainfall of 1.87 inches event total, via social media. |
| July 2015 | Heavy Rain | Humeston | - | Public reported storm total in excess of 5.00 inches of rain. Report via social media. |
| July 2015 | Heavy Rain | Humeston | - | Public reported storm total heavy rainfall of 2.30 inches. |
| August 2014 | Heavy Rain | Humeston | - | Rainfall of 3.5 inches in the past 24 hours. |
| April 2015 | Hail | Humeston | - | no account filed |
| February 2014 | Hail | Humeston | - | no account filed |
| February 2014 | Hail | Humeston | - | no account filed |
| September 2010 | Hail | Humeston | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Flood | Humeston | - | 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 Humeston | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1931867 | 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 457720. 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.







