Modale, Iowa
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Taylor Township. It lies in ZIP code area 51556. It stands on Fish Lake. The Survey maps it on the Modale quadrangle. 273 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,010 feet above sea level.
On record in Modale
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 1 record
- Modale School and Masonic Halllisted 2014
Population over time
2 figuresModale fell from 283 to 273 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 | 283 | |
| 2020 | 273 | -10 (-4%) |
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.
- 1955 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:250000
- 1970 USGS Modale quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1986 USGS Blair quadrangle1:100000, 2 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 Modale between 2006 and 2018, burning about 194 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 | 7 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 September 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 19 September 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 55 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 6 June 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 June 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 April 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | MISSOURI VALLEY FIRE DEPT. |
| 6 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 35 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 19 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 18 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 March 2014 | 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
30 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Modale in 30 storm reports between 1996 and 2026: 17 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 2 tornado. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Modale | $5,000 | Thunderstorm wind damaged some farm equipment. |
| April 2026 | Hail | Modale | - | Public report of hail measured up to 1 inch in diameter in Modale, IA. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Modale | - | An enhanced area of straight-line wind damage with a maximum speed of 107 mph created widespread damage across nearly 13 square miles. This damage was located 4 miles west of Modale where center pivots were overturned. The damage extended eastward into the Loess Hills where numerous trees were snapped, uprooted and topped. Several power lines were downed in this area as well. Damage occurred to numerous grain bins in this area, but the most extensive and widespread damage was to trees throughout this area. |
| April 2024 | Tornado (EF1) | Modale | - | This segment is a continuation of the EF-4 tornado that went through western Douglas and Washington Counties. Upon entering far southwestern Harrison County, the tornado moved across the Missouri River, crossing Highway 30 and the Union Pacific Rail line about one mile east of the Iowa-Nebraska state line. Several trees were snapped and broken, producing EF-0 damage. The tornado then moved across bottomland and agricultural areas, snapping or uprooting several trees and tipping center pivots, producing EF-0 to EF-1 damage. The tornado dissipated approximately 2 miles southwest of Modale, Iowa at 4:29 pm CDT. Peak estimated winds during this segment of the tornado track were estimated at 90 miles per hour. The peak width of the tornado during its track in Harrison County was estimated to be around 350 yards, with an average width of 100 yards. |
| May 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Modale | - | Some tree limbs and a power pole were downed in the Modale area by thunderstorms winds estimated at around 60 mph. The time was estimated by radar. |
| June 2010 | Hail | Modale | - | Nickel size hail fell for around 10 minutes. |
| July 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Modale | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at close to 60 mph downed a large tree branch in the area. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Modale | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at close to 60 mph ripped the top part of a grain bin off near Modale spilling the corn stored inside. |
| August 2009 | Hail | Modale | - | A few hailstones a bit larger than golf ball-size fell in the Modale area. The larger hailstones were relatively few and far between. |
| April 2007 | Hail | Modale | - | The hail caused some minor vehicle damage in the area. |
| September 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Modale | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at least at 60 mph broke large tree branches and downed a few old trees in town. |
| September 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Modale | - | Large tree branches were reported down. |
| April 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Modale | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at over 60 mph overturned a center pivot and bent a few signs south of Modale. |
| April 2005 | Hail | Modale | - | Nickel size hail was accompanied by very heavy rain and strong winds south of Modale. There was a public report of 4.2 inches of rain with this storm which left "considerable" amounts of standing water yet that next morning. |
| October 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Modale | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts of 55 to 60 mph accompanied hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter. The hail damaged soybean crops and killed 200 pheasants in a hunting preserve. |
| June 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Modale | - | Harrison county fire and rescue reported a brief tornado touchdown near Modale. The tornado was from the same supercell which produced the reported tornado near Tekamah, Nebraska earlier that hour. This tornado also touched down in open country and caused no apparent damage. |
| October 2000 | Hail | Modale | - | A hailstorm, with some stones approaching one inch in diameter, destroyed around 500 acres of soybean crops near Modale. |
| June 1999 | Flash Flood | Modale | - | Rainfall around 7 inches in Modale flooded county roads in the area. |
| July 1999 | Flash Flood | Modale | - | Two to 3.7 inches of rain in 40 minutes flooded county roads and town streets from Missouri Valley to northwest of Modale. |
| June 2014 | Hail | Modale | - | no account filed |
| August 2011 | Hail | Modale | - | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | Modale | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Modale | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Modale | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Modale | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Hail | Modale | - | no account filed |
| October 2002 | Hail | Modale | - | no account filed |
| May 2001 | Hail | Modale | - | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Hail | Modale | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Hail | Modale | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| California Junction | 4.3 miles | 8 | |
| Calhoun | 6.2 miles | 8 | |
| Mondamin | 6.3 miles | 8 | |
| Missouri Valley | 7.9 miles | 8 | |
| Magnolia | 8.9 miles | 8 | |
| Echo | 9.2 miles | 8 | |
| Findley | 9.4 miles | 8 | |
| Euclid | 9.6 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 Modale | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q613911 | 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 459158. 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.




