Marcus, Iowa
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Marcus Township. It lies in ZIP code area 51035. The Survey maps it on the Marcus quadrangle. 1,079 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,460 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresMarcus fell from 1,117 to 1,079 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 | 1,117 | |
| 2020 | 1,079 | -38 (-3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 9 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 Fort Dodge quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Fort Dodge quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Fort Dodge quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Marcus quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Storm Lake quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
12 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Marcus between 2006 and 2015, burning about 393 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 | 5 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | SEC. 27 - CHEROKEE COUNTY, IA |
| 29 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 40 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | APPROX 12 SOUTH AND 1 EAST OF MARCUS, IA |
| 4 April 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 40 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 26 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 20 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 17 April 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 12 April 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | 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
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Marcus: 1 past producer. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
37 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Marcus in 37 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 17 hail, 14 thunderstorm wind, 3 flood, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marcus | $50,000 | Thunderstorm winds removed sections of the roof off a few buildings and blew a semi-truck off the road. Property damage costs are a rough estimate. |
| June 2014 | Flood | Marcus | $50,000 | Persistent moderate to heavy rain caused flooding of fields and other lowlands, including several roads, homes, and businesses. This flooding lasted for almost two days, and was aggravated locally by additional storms during that time. Some roads were damaged or washed out. |
| June 1994 | Hail | Marcus | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 1994 | Hail | Marcus | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Flash Flood | Marcus | $10,000 | Heavy rain caused flash flooding of many paved and gravel roads. The floodwaters washed out a culvert and also washed a pickup truck off a road. |
| August 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marcus | $10,000 | Thundestorm winds caused tree damage, including large trees blown down. |
| June 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marcus | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marcus | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts removed numerous 6 inch diameter tree limbs as well as knocked down several trees around town. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Marcus | - | Hail was mostly pea to dime size as well as soft, but a few stones were as large as quarters. There was enough hail to briefly cover the ground before it melted in about 15 minutes. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marcus | - | A large evergreen tree in Marcus was downed by thunderstorm wind gusts. |
| August 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marcus | - | Corn was flattened by thunderstorm wind gusts. Crop damage is an estimate from insured losses. Information provided by the United States Department of Agriculture. |
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marcus | - | Five inch diameter tree limbs snapped. |
| May 2016 | Hail | Marcus | - | Hail was mostly pea size, but there were a few large stones up to ping pong ball size. |
| June 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marcus | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including up to 2 foot diameter trees snapped. The winds also blew down power lines. |
| August 2015 | Flood | Marcus | - | Heavy rainfall of 3 to 7 inches caused areal flooding of farmland, ditches, and several roads. |
| June 2014 | Flood | Marcus | - | Persistent moderate to heavy rain caused flooding of some fields and other lowlands, including several roads. This flooding lasted well into the daytime hours after the rain subsided. |
| May 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marcus | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including some trees blown down. |
| September 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marcus | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several trees blown down. |
| September 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marcus | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several small branches blown down. The winds were accompanied by quarter size hail. |
| September 2011 | Hail | Marcus | - | Large hail was accompanied by 60 mph wind gusts. |
| June 2010 | Tornado (EF0) | Marcus | - | A tornado caused no reported damage. |
| May 2008 | Hail | Marcus | - | Large hail was accompanied by heavy rain. |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marcus | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage. |
| May 2022 | Hail | Marcus | - | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Marcus | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Marcus | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Funnel Cloud | Marcus | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Hail | Marcus | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Marcus | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Marcus | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Marcus | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marcus | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Hail | Marcus | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marcus | - | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Hail | Marcus | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Marcus | - | no account filed |
| September 1996 | Hail | Marcus | - | 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 Marcus | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1913857 | 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 458799. 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.




