Lucas, Iowa
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1918 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Jackson Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50151. The Survey maps it on the Lucas quadrangle. 172 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 892 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresLucas fell from 216 to 172 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 | 216 | |
| 2020 | 172 | -44 (-20%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 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.
- 1918 USGS Chariton quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 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
- 1982 USGS Lucas quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Indianola quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
12 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Lucas between 2006 and 2020, burning about 104 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 | 10 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 19 August 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 7 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 6 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 49265 HWY 65, IA |
| 15 April 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 March 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 20 March 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 19 March 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
40 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lucas in 40 storm reports between 1998 and 2023: 13 hail, 11 heavy rain, 6 thunderstorm wind, 5 flood. The reports record 4 injuries. 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 1999 | Tornado (F3) | Lucas | 4 hurt, $250,000 | no account filed |
| April 2007 | Flood | Lucas | $250,000 | no account filed |
| September 2004 | Tornado (F0) | Lucas | $75,000 | Tornado touched down in northwest Lucas County and tracked northeast for about two miles. Extensive damage was reported on one farm. |
| May 2007 | Flash Flood | Lucas | $75,000 | no account filed |
| September 2014 | Flood | Lucas | $50,000 | Waters receded through the day with water remaining over highway 65 south of Lucas. |
| September 2014 | Flash Flood | Lucas | $50,000 | Water was reported over many roadways throughout the county with the hardest hit being water over the road on highway 65 south of Lucas. |
| September 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Lucas | $50,000 | Tornado caused damage to a farmstead north-northeast of Lucas. |
| September 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lucas | $30,000 | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Flood | Lucas | $25,000 | Flooding over the roads in Stephens State Forest. |
| July 2008 | Flood | Lucas | $25,000 | Local law enforcement reported that Highway 65 was being closed just south of Highway 34 due to water over the road from White Breast Creek. |
| April 2012 | Hail | Lucas | $25,000 | no account filed |
| April 2009 | Flood | Lucas | $20,000 | Highway 65 at Highway 34 was closed in both directions near Lucas because of flooding. |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lucas | $15,000 | no account filed |
| August 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lucas | $10,000 | Trained spotter reported multiple trees down. |
| May 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lucas | $10,000 | Windows were blown out of a house. |
| March 2006 | Hail | Lucas | $5,000 | no account filed |
| October 2001 | Hail | Lucas | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Lucas | $2,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lucas | $2,000 | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lucas | $2,000 | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Lucas | $1,000 | no account filed |
| May 2023 | Hail | Lucas | - | Report via mping. |
| November 2022 | Heavy Rain | Lucas | - | A 24 hour rain total of 2.72 inches. |
| September 2022 | Heavy Rain | Lucas | - | A 24 hour rain total of 3.38 inches. |
| November 2022 | Heavy Rain | Lucas | - | A 24 hour rain total of 3.08 inches. |
| September 2022 | Heavy Rain | Lucas | - | A 24 hour rain total of 4.70 inches. |
| July 2021 | Heavy Rain | Lucas | - | A 24 hour rain total of 3.18 inches. |
| April 2020 | Hail | Lucas | - | Trained spotter report of pea to nickle sized hail. |
| May 2020 | Heavy Rain | Lucas | - | Trained spotter reports heavy rain with fields and ditches filled with water. Beginning and end time roughly estimated from radar. |
| August 2019 | Heavy Rain | Lucas | - | Mesonet station recorded heavy rainfall of 2.77 inches. Beginning and ending times estimated from radar. |
| August 2019 | Heavy Rain | Lucas | - | Mesonet station recorded heavy rainfall of 2.50 inches. Beginning time estimated from radar. |
| April 2016 | Hail | Lucas | - | Pea to penny size hail was reported. |
| August 2015 | Hail | Lucas | - | Trained spotter reported nickel sized hail. |
| November 2015 | Heavy Rain | Lucas | - | Mesonet station reported heavy rainfall of 1.51 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| July 2013 | Heavy Rain | Lucas | - | Rainfall of 3.57 inches, most of which was in the past hour. |
| April 2013 | Heavy Rain | Lucas | - | Rainfall of 5.26 inches in the past 24 hours. |
| April 2014 | Hail | Lucas | - | no account filed |
| May 2013 | Hail | Lucas | - | no account filed |
| April 2011 | Hail | Lucas | - | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Hail | Lucas | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Troy (historical) | 1.9 miles | 11 | |
| Whitebreast | 5.2 miles | 11 | |
| Indianola Junction | 5.5 miles | 11 | |
| Norwood | 6.2 miles | 11 | |
| Derby | 6.7 miles | 12 | |
| Last Chance | 7.0 miles | 7 | |
| Oakley | 7.1 miles | 11 | |
| Chariton | 8.2 miles | 11 |
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 Lucas | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q926675 | 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 458673. 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.






