Patterson, Iowa
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1951 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Crawford Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50218. The Survey maps it on the Patterson quadrangle. 176 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 889 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresPatterson grew from 130 to 176 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 | 130 | |
| 2020 | 176 | +46 (+35%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 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.
- 1951 USGS St. Charles quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Patterson quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Indianola quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
1 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Patterson in 2009, burning about 1 acre 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 April 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 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
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Patterson: 3 producers, 1 past producer. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gardner Quarry and Mill | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Ninety-Two Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Winterset Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Winterset Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
30 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Patterson in 30 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 9 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 6 tornado, 5 flash flood. 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 2013 | Flood | Patterson | $500,000 | Large sections of Cumming Highway underwater and a number of county bridges either washed out or underwater. |
| July 2015 | Flood | Patterson | $250,000 | Emergency Manager reported Cumming Road/County Road G4R remained closed due to water flowing over them between 155th St and Badger Creek Rd. Additionally many secondary roads across the county remain closed with water flowing over them. |
| June 2014 | Tornado (EF1) | Patterson | $100,000 | The tornado touched down NW of Patterson where an RFD surge was located and a curling motion noted in the damage patterns just upstream of the start point. The tornado proceeded to damage several small groves of trees over the next 1.9 miles. Here the tornado strengthened to EF1 where it snapped or uprooted several hundred trees. The path was often sporadic, owing likely to the hilly terrain of the area. The worst damage occurred to a home 2.5 miles NW of Bevington, which had the detached garage roof fail and take out part of the house roof as well. Roof and siding damage was noted to 5 homes. |
| May 2015 | Tornado (EF1) | Patterson | $50,000 | This short-lived tornado tracked northwest and damaged several farmsteads. A horse trailer was thrown 40 yards into a pine tree, flipping a parked car along the way. Damage was otherwise contained to outbuilding roofs and trees. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Patterson | $50,000 | Very narrow but intense RFD south of the tornado path. Damage path only about a mile long and 100-150 yards wide before it wraps into the tornado. Divergent wind pattern throughout with dozens of trees snapped and uprooted. One house sustained roof and siding damage. |
| June 2013 | Flash Flood | Patterson | $50,000 | Highway 92 between Patterson and Bevington was flooded. |
| June 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Patterson | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Flash Flood | Patterson | $25,000 | Law enforcement reports 6 to 8 inches of water flowing over the 2800 block of Cumming Road. |
| June 2008 | Flash Flood | Patterson | $20,000 | Water over the road. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Patterson | $10,000 | Narrow but strong RFD west and south of the beginning of a tornado track. Damage path started just west of the tornado track and then shifted south of the track. Over a dozen trees were uprooted and many more had limb damage. A few very small and old farm outbuildings were destroyed. Path of damage was just under three miles long and 1/2 of a mile wide, though the worst damage corridor was 100-150 yards wide. Point for Storm Data is in the area of strongest damage. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Patterson | $10,000 | Broad area of inflow winds north of the tornado. Damage was mostly to large tree limbs. Damage first noted near county road G4R and Settlers Ave and grew narrower and more intense as it approached the tornado. Area of strongest damage denoted by Storm Data point. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Patterson | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2014 | Hail | Patterson | $5,000 | A wind gust to 57 MPH was also measured. |
| June 2008 | Flash Flood | Patterson | $5,000 | Debris was washing into the streets from the Middle River. |
| June 2008 | Flash Flood | Patterson | $5,000 | Water over the road at Cumming Road and Quail Ridge Ave. |
| May 2004 | Hail | Patterson | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2024 | Tornado (EF0) | Patterson | $2,000 | This tornado produced minor tree damage with a path evident in high-resolution satellite imagery. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Patterson | $2,000 | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Patterson | $1,000 | A trained spotter experienced 60 MPH winds between Winterset and Patterson. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Patterson | $1,000 | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Patterson | $1,000 | no account filed |
| March 2025 | Hail | Patterson | - | Reported from mping. |
| April 2024 | Tornado (EFU) | Patterson | - | Storm chaser captured video of this tornado as it travelled just south of Patterson in Madison County. High resolution satellite imagery also helped define the path of this tornado as it stayed in rural areas. This tornado did not impact any damage indicators, hence the EFU rating. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Patterson | - | Wind gust report by a trained spotter. |
| June 2024 | Tornado (EFU) | Patterson | - | This was a brief tornado observed by a spotter which remained in rural areas. No damage indicators were impacted, hence the EFU rating. |
| July 2023 | Hail | Patterson | - | Delayed report, time estimated via radar. |
| June 2020 | Hail | Patterson | - | Trained spotter report of nickle sized hail. |
| May 2015 | Tornado (EF1) | Patterson | - | This intermittent tornado tracked northwest during its short life and damaged several groves of trees. |
| June 2015 | Hail | Patterson | - | State Official reported golf ball sized hail between Winterset and Patterson along Highway 92. |
| June 2010 | Hail | Patterson | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tileville | 2.9 miles | 9 | |
| Bevington | 4.8 miles | 9 | |
| Hanley | 4.8 miles | 9 | |
| Saint Charles | 5.6 miles | 9 | |
| McBride | 6.5 miles | 9 | |
| Buffalo (historical) | 7.0 miles | 11 | |
| Winterset | 7.2 miles | 11 | |
| Old Peru | 8.5 miles | 9 |
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 Patterson | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1926757 | 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 460039. 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.






