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.
Population over time
3 figuresKent 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 52 | |
| 2010 | 61 | +9 (+17%) |
| 2020 | 37 | -24 (-39%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 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.
- 1955 USGS Nebraska City quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Nebraska City quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Nebraska City quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Kent quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Mount Ayr quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
13 since 2007Regional 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/undetermined | 6 |
| Debris and open burning | 5 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 September 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 28 August 2012 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 August 2013 | Smoking | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 23 July 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 23 July 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 18 July 2012 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 7 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 April 2013 | Debris and open burning | 75 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
14 since 2000Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2014 | Flash Flood | Kent | $200,000 | Water over many secondary roads in southern Union County. Water in areas that rarely see flooding. |
| November 2015 | Tornado (EF1) | Kent | $125,000 | This 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 2025 | Tornado (EF1) | Kent | $46,000 | The 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 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kent | $15,000 | no account filed |
| June 2019 | Flash Flood | Kent | $10,000 | Law enforcement reported Highway 34 closed in both directions at Kent Corner due to water over the road. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kent | $10,000 | Emergency Manager reported tree limbs down and an auger blown over. Damage occurred in Adams County on the Adams/Union counties line. |
| June 2019 | Hail | Kent | $5,000 | Trained spotter reported hail slightly larger than golf balls, as well as damage to flowers and crops. |
| June 2008 | Tornado (EF0) | Kent | $5,000 | State patrol reported a tornado near Kent. |
| June 2005 | Hail | Kent | $5,000 | no account filed |
| September 2002 | Hail | Kent | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Kent | $2,000 | no account filed |
| June 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kent | - | Trained spotter reported 60 mph winds and dime sized hail. |
| May 2011 | Funnel Cloud | Kent | - | Spotter reported 2 funnels trying to descend. |
| April 2024 | Funnel Cloud | Kent | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cromwell | 6.0 miles | 9 | |
| Creston | 8.8 miles | 9 | |
| East Creston | 9.6 miles | 9 | |
| Shannon City | 10.7 miles | 8 | |
| Arispe | 12.5 miles | 8 | |
| Afton | 14.5 miles | 11 | |
| Spaulding | 15.2 miles | 9 | |
| Shepard (historical) | 16.1 miles | 8 |
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 Kent | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q615804 | 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 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.




