Morning Sun, Iowa
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1958 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Morning Sun Township. It lies in ZIP code area 52640. The Survey maps it on the Morning Sun quadrangle. 752 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 755 feet above sea level.
On record in Morning Sun
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
- Mellinger Memorial Librarylisted 2024
Population over time
2 figuresMorning Sun fell from 836 to 752 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 | 836 | |
| 2020 | 752 | -84 (-10%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 7 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.
- 1958 USGS Davenport quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Davenport quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Davenport quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Morning Sun quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Muscatine quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
13 since 2008Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Morning Sun between 2008 and 2017, burning about 78 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 | 8 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 September 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | GRANDVIEW FIRE DEPT. |
| 6 April 2013 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 10 April 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 31 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 March 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 29 March 2013 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 27 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 17 March 2017 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Morning Sun: 2 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Limestone, Dimension, Limestone, Dimension, Flagstone. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dalzell Quarry | Limestone, Dimension, Flagstone | Past Producer | ||
| Morning Sun Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Unknown | Limestone, Dimension | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
10 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Morning Sun in 10 storm reports between 1999 and 2024: 3 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 lightning, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2003 | Hail | Morning Sun | $4,000,000 | no account filed |
| April 2003 | Tornado (F0) | Morning Sun | $200,000 | Path narrowed to 50 yards |
| March 2006 | Hail | Morning Sun | $30,000 | At the fire station |
| May 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Morning Sun | $25,000 | Winds estimated to be 65 mph destroyed a barn just east of Morning Sun, IA around 12:10 am. Some new corn was also blown over. |
| October 2024 | Hail | Morning Sun | - | A public report relayed a train spotter. The time of the event was estimated using radar. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Morning Sun | - | A large tree was blown down, blocking the road at teh intersection of 46th Street and L Avenue. |
| June 2008 | Flash Flood | Morning Sun | - | Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding of parts of Louisa County June 12. Some small streams near Morning Sun, IA flooded out of their banks. |
| October 2000 | Lightning | Morning Sun | - | Lightning set a telephone pole on fire. |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Morning Sun | - | A thunderstorm gust of 60 mph blew a Sheriff's squad car into the opposite lane of traffic in rural Morning Sun. |
| April 2003 | Funnel Cloud | Morning Sun | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newport | 4.0 miles | 11 | |
| Marsh | 5.0 miles | 7 | |
| Wapello | 7.0 miles | 11 | |
| Cairo | 7.1 miles | 7 | |
| Elrick Junction | 7.4 miles | 11 | |
| Bard (historical) | 10.1 miles | 7 | |
| Toolesboro | 10.8 miles | 13 | |
| Oakville | 11.3 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 Morning Sun | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q507288 | 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 459240. 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.




