Iowa Center, Iowa
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Indian Creek Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50161. It stands on East Indian Creek. The Survey maps it on the Maxwell quadrangle. It stands 948 feet above sea level.
On record in Iowa Center
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 2 records
Octagon Round Barn, Indian Creek Townshiplisted 1986- William Kennison Wood Houselisted 1995
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 8 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 Des Moines quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1975 USGS Maxwell quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
20 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 20 fires within 5 miles of Iowa Center between 2009 and 2020, burning about 72 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 | 9 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9 |
| Smoking | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 September 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 12 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 31766 645 AVE, IA |
| 22 August 2012 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 July 2017 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 19 July 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | INDIAN CREEK TRAIL, IA |
| 7 May 2018 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 May 2012 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 April 2019 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Iowa Center: 4 past producers. None of them 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boyd Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Cook Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| E. Aarthun Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
27 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Iowa Center in 27 storm reports between 2007 and 2025: 11 heavy rain, 8 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 4 flash 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2013 | Flash Flood | Iowa Center | $250,000 | Several roads were washed out by flash flooding. |
| May 2014 | Flash Flood | Iowa Center | $25,000 | Numerous country gravel roads had water covering them from earlier rainfall of 2.5 to 3 inches. |
| August 2010 | Flash Flood | Iowa Center | $25,000 | Story County Sheriff reports water over the road on County Highway S27 just north of Maxwell, near the Rolling Hills Mobile Home Park. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Iowa Center | $10,000 | Two 3 foot diameter trees were uprooted and blocked the road southwest of Colo. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Iowa Center | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Iowa Center | $5,000 | Wind gust was estimated. Some hail also fell at the time. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Iowa Center | $5,000 | A trained spotter reported hail of mostly penny size, but with a few up to 1.5 inches in diameter about 3 miles south of Nevada at the intersection of Highway F14 and 270th St. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Iowa Center | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Iowa Center | $3,000 | A few large 8 inch diameter and 20 feet long tree limbs down. |
| May 2010 | Hail | Iowa Center | $3,000 | Hail falling in clusters with winds estimated at 45 MPH. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Iowa Center | $3,000 | Several 6 inch or larger limbs were snapped off of trees. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Iowa Center | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Iowa Center | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Iowa Center | - | Gust recorded on personal weather station. |
| July 2021 | Heavy Rain | Iowa Center | - | A 24 hour rain total of 5.50 inches. |
| July 2021 | Heavy Rain | Iowa Center | - | A 24 hour rain total of 4.44 inches. |
| July 2021 | Flash Flood | Iowa Center | - | Report of water over the road at 305th and 630th with 3 to 4 inches of rainfall in the area. |
| July 2021 | Heavy Rain | Iowa Center | - | Trained spotter reports 5.60 inches of rain since 6 pm local time. |
| August 2019 | Heavy Rain | Iowa Center | - | Public reported heavy rainfall of 3.1 inches. Beginning time estimated from radar. |
| September 2019 | Heavy Rain | Iowa Center | - | CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 2.57 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| June 2018 | Heavy Rain | Iowa Center | - | CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 2.91 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| June 2018 | Heavy Rain | Iowa Center | - | Trained spotter reported heavy rainfall of 3.7 inches. |
| July 2018 | Heavy Rain | Iowa Center | - | Trained spotter reported storm total heavy rainfall of 7.3 inches northwest of Maxwell. Due to database entry limitation, beginning time coded as midnight CST. Actual estimated start time of 545pm CDT June 30th. |
| July 2018 | Heavy Rain | Iowa Center | - | CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 7.30 inches over the last 24 hours. Due to database entry limitation, beginning time coded as midnight CST. |
| July 2015 | Heavy Rain | Iowa Center | - | Trained spotter reported 3.5 inches of rain over the last 24 hours. |
| May 2013 | Heavy Rain | Iowa Center | - | Trained spotter reports 3.1 inches of rain fell in an hour and a half ending at 1700 CST. Several reports of roads washed out in the area. |
| May 2013 | Hail | Iowa Center | - | 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 Iowa Center | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6064287 | 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 457823. 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.





