BlockBefore

Kent, Iowa

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Platte Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50851. The Survey maps it on the Kent quadrangle. 37 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,214 feet above sea level.

Kent within Union County

Population over time

3 figures

Kent fell from 52 to 37 between 2000 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.

YearPeople Change
200052
201061+9 (+17%)
202037-24 (-39%)

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.

Fires near this place

13 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Kent between 2007 and 2018, burning about 110 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/undetermined6
Debris and open burning5
Smoking2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
17 September 2007Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
28 August 2012Debris and open burning1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
1 August 2013Smokingunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
23 July 2012Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
23 July 2012Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
18 July 2012Debris and open burning1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
7 April 2018Debris and open burning5.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
5 April 2013Debris and open burning75 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Union County

Storms near this place

14 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Kent in 14 storm reports between 2000 and 2025: 4 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 2 funnel cloud. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
September 2014Flash FloodKent$200,000Water over many secondary roads in southern Union County. Water in areas that rarely see flooding.
November 2015Tornado (EF1)Kent$125,000This tornado crossed three counties in southern Iowa. This is segment three in Union county. This long track tornado damaged a number of farmsteads along its 22 mile long path. The tornado was at its strongest in NW Ringgold County where EF-1 damage was found. The beginning and end sections of the track were narrow and intermittent. The narrow tornado also clipped the town of Clearfield to the NW early in its life.
April 2025Tornado (EF1)Kent$46,000The tornado developed in southwest Union county and tracked through rural portions of the county. Four properties reported damage, ranging from damage to outbuildings to shingle damage to a home.
June 2002Thunderstorm WindKent$15,000no account filed
June 2019Flash FloodKent$10,000Law enforcement reported Highway 34 closed in both directions at Kent Corner due to water over the road.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindKent$10,000Emergency Manager reported tree limbs down and an auger blown over. Damage occurred in Adams County on the Adams/Union counties line.
June 2019HailKent$5,000Trained spotter reported hail slightly larger than golf balls, as well as damage to flowers and crops.
June 2008Tornado (EF0)Kent$5,000State patrol reported a tornado near Kent.
June 2005HailKent$5,000no account filed
September 2002HailKent$2,000no account filed
July 2000HailKent$2,000no account filed
June 2019Thunderstorm WindKent-Trained spotter reported 60 mph winds and dime sized hail.
May 2011Funnel CloudKent-Spotter reported 2 funnels trying to descend.
April 2024Funnel CloudKent-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Union 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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Cromwell6.0 miles9
Creston8.8 miles9
East Creston9.6 miles9
Shannon City10.7 miles8
Arispe12.5 miles8
Afton14.5 miles11
Spaulding15.2 miles9
Shepard (historical)16.1 miles8

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 KentAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q615804The 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 458048. 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.