Moorhead, Iowa
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1980. It stands in Spring Valley Township. It lies in ZIP code area 51558. It stands on Elk Creek. The Survey maps it on the Moorhead quadrangle. 199 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,125 feet above sea level.
On record in Moorhead
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 4 records
Ingemann Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church and Cemeterylisted 2012
Mann School No. 2listed 2001- Jones Creek Watershed Historic Districtlisted 1991
- South Jordan Cemeterylisted 2021
Population over time
2 figuresMoorhead fell from 226 to 199 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 | 226 | |
| 2020 | 199 | -27 (-12%) |
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.
- 1954 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1971 USGS Moorhead quadrangle1:24000
- 1980 USGS Harlan quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
1 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Moorhead in 2018, burning about 400 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 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 April 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Storms near this place
18 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Moorhead in 18 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 10 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1994 | Hail | Moorhead | $5,000 | no account filed |
| April 2024 | Tornado (EF0) | Moorhead | - | A short-lived tornado developed in an agricultural field and moved generally northeast across fields and pastureland, damaging outbuildings of farmsteads near the intersection of 280th and Poplar Roads. The tornado appeared to dissipate in pastureland before reaching State Highway 183. Peak winds were estimated at 85 miles per hour. The tornado reached a maximum width of 100 yards, with an average width estimated at 50 yards. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Moorhead | - | Law enforcement reported trees and branches down. |
| June 2011 | Tornado (EF1) | Moorhead | - | A NWS storm survey determined a tornado tracked around 7 miles southeast of the Turin area. The tornado touched down near county roads E60 and L14 producing sporadic tree damage. The tornado tracked north northeast hitting a farmstead along L14 uprooting trees, downing power lines and destroying a grain bin. The tornado then moved across the Loess Hills producing varying degrees of tree damage. After crossing county roads E54 and 277th street additional tree and farm outbuilding damage occurred. Part of a roof of a farm house was removed near 258th Street with outbuildings also damaged in that area. The tornado knocked down some power lines near county road L16 before lifting in that area. The average path width was determined to be around 300 yards. |
| May 2008 | Tornado (EF1) | Moorhead | - | This tornado initially touched down in a grove of trees in a rural area southwest of Moorhead. As it tracked east it hit a farmstead causing house and outbuilding damage and also severely damaged a grove of walnut trees. Before the tornado lifted, it damaged two other separate groves of cottonwood trees and snapped a 3 foot diameter oak tree at its base and damaged a chicken coop at another farmstead. The path width of the tornado damage was generally less than 100 yards, although it reached a maximum width of around 200 yards. |
| July 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Moorhead | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at 60 mph downed some small tree limbs in town. |
| April 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Moorhead | - | A thunderstorm wind gust of around 60 mph was reported near Moorhead. |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Moorhead | - | Large tree limbs broken off. |
| July 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Moorhead | - | Trees blown down. |
| August 2011 | Hail | Moorhead | - | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Hail | Moorhead | - | no account filed |
| March 2007 | Hail | Moorhead | - | no account filed |
| March 2006 | Hail | Moorhead | - | no account filed |
| April 2004 | Hail | Moorhead | - | no account filed |
| April 2004 | Hail | Moorhead | - | no account filed |
| September 2004 | Hail | Moorhead | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Hail | Moorhead | - | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Hail | Moorhead | - | 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 Moorhead | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1926536 | 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 459216. 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.




