Parnell, Iowa
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Fillmore Township. It lies in ZIP code area 52325. The Survey maps it on the North English quadrangle. 194 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 863 feet above sea level.
On record in Parnell
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
Population over time
2 figuresParnell grew from 193 to 194 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 | 193 | |
| 2020 | 194 | +1 (+1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 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 Des Moines quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS North English quadrangle1:24000
- 1969 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Grinnell quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
48 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 48 fires within 5 miles of Parnell between 2009 and 2020, burning about 246 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 | 29 |
| Debris and open burning | 15 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 September 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 29 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 00 AVE. AND 335TH ST. NORTH ENGLISH, IA |
| 26 July 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | WILLIAMSBURG FIRE |
| 30 May 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 2926 P AVE, PARNELL, IOWA |
| 3 May 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 21 May 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | WILLIAMSBURG FIRE |
| 9 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 2926 P AVE. PARNELL, IA 52325, IA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
16 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Parnell in 16 storm reports between 1997 and 2026: 9 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 2 flash flood, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2021 | Flash Flood | Parnell | - | Public report of creek flooding, through MPING. Street flooded in town, with lots of standing water. Relayed through broadcast media. |
| May 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Parnell | - | Trees were blown down in the town of Parnell. The largest were around 2 feet in diameter and some were snapped off 3 feet above the ground. |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Parnell | - | Three inch diameter tree branches down. |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Parnell | - | A trained spotter reported large tree branches down with one tree split. The time was estimated by radar. |
| August 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Parnell | - | A trained spotter reported numerous trees down all over town. No power at their residence. |
| August 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Parnell | - | Power poles were snapped and blown down for three quarters of a mile. This is the middle of a path that is about 1 mile wide. There is also widespread tree damage in this area with some trees snapped and crops blown down in this area. |
| April 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Parnell | - | A trained spotter reported that small branches were down with a gutter blown off of the house. |
| June 2014 | Flash Flood | Parnell | - | Many roads closed due to flash flooding and fields flooded. |
| September 2012 | Hail | Parnell | - | Quarter sized hail fell in Parnell, IA at 403 am CDT September 7. |
| April 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Parnell | - | A trained storm spotter reported a brief tornado touchdown along county road F52 between Parnell and Holbrook. Only minor damage to vegetation was observed. There were no injuries. |
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Parnell | - | Trees downed. |
| April 2026 | Thunderstorm Wind | Parnell | - | no account filed |
| August 2018 | Hail | Parnell | - | no account filed |
| August 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Parnell | - | no account filed |
| May 2012 | Hail | Parnell | - | no account filed |
| September 1999 | Hail | Parnell | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holbrook | 4.9 miles | 12 | |
| Williamsburg | 5.4 miles | 8 | |
| North English | 6.1 miles | 8 | |
| Green Center | 6.9 miles | 12 | |
| Millersburg | 8.3 miles | 8 | |
| Conroy | 10.1 miles | 12 | |
| Genoa Bluff | 11.1 miles | 8 | |
| Armah (historical) | 11.4 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 Parnell | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1926396 | 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 460031. 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.






