BlockShelby, Iowa
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1980. It stands in Shelby Township. It lies in ZIP code area 51570. It stands on Little Silver Creek. The Survey maps it on the Shelby quadrangle.
On record in Shelby
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 2 records
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Stone Arch Viaductlisted 1998- Shelby Consolidated Schoollisted 2014
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
- 1978 USGS Shelby quadrangle1:24000
- 1980 USGS Harlan quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
2 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Shelby between 2001 and 2014, burning about 10 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 May 2001 | Recreation and ceremony | 6.0 acres | Iowa State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 8 April 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Storms near this place
25 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Shelby in 25 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 12 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 3 tornado, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2015 | Tornado (EF1) | Shelby | $1,200,000 | This tornado entered Shelby County from Pottawattamie County from the southwest. The tornado impacted a total of 6 farmsteads in the county as it tracked to the north northeast. Damage at these farmsteads was confined to mainly outbuilding being damaged or destroyed, trees uprooted, and electrical power poles downed. The tornado tracked across the western side of the Harlan Airport without doing damage to the airport, but a wind gust associated with the rear-flank downdraft of the storm was measured at 76 mph at the automatic observing equipment on the east side of the airport. The tornado finally ended just to the southeast of the city of Harlan. |
| July 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelby | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelby | - | A 67 miles per hour wind gust was measured by a personal weather station. |
| May 2024 | Tornado (EF1) | Shelby | - | This is a continuation of the EF-1 tornado that started in Pottawattamie County. This tornado crosses into far southwest Shelby County just east of the intersection of Elmwood Road and 100th Street. Several tree trunks were snapped along Elmwood Road as the tornado continued to the northeast. This tornado dissipated about a quarter of a mile into Shelby County. Peak wind speeds for this final segment of the tornado track were estimated at 88 mph. Peak tornado width was measured at 100 yards, with an average width in this segment of the track estimated at 50 yards. |
| April 2024 | Tornado (EF3) | Shelby | - | This is a continuation of the Minden, Iowa EF-3 tornado. Prior to this segment, the tornado had tracked through Pottawattamie County and a small portion of extreme southeast Harrison County. After crossing into Shelby County between York Road and 335th Street, tree and powerline damage continued to the northeast, with a home having its roof blown off near County Road M16 and 450th Street. Trees in the area were uprooted or snapped at the base of the trunk. A home was badly damaged, and a barn was destroyed less than one mile southeast of Tennant. The tornado appears to have been widest near 750th Street and Hackberry Road, at approximately 1900 yards in width based on tree and powerline damage. At Highway 44, a home was destroyed along with substantial tree damage. Most walls of the home were standing, but a large automobile was thrown or rolled nearly a quarter mile. The tree and vehicle damage suggested that this location was a stronger section of the tornado, and was subsequently rated EF-3. The tornado tracked approximately 1.5 miles northwest of Harlan and began to turn more towards the north, significantly damaging at least 3 homes near Highway 59 as it crossed. It turned almost due north and traveled several miles along Linden Road, and missed the town of Defiance, Iowa by less than half a mile to the east. A second tornado developed just to the east of this one at this time, tracking along Oak Road and causing separate damage. Near Defiance the tornado also became rain-wrapped according to chaser video, and appears likely to have ended just south of the Crawford-Shelby county line. There is some potential based on radar data that this tornado tracked farther north into Crawford County, but damage surveys did not identify a track continuation. The peak estimated winds in this segment of the tornado track were 140 miles per hour. The maximum width of the tornado was measured at 1900 yards with an average width estimated at 1300 yards. |
| July 2024 | Funnel Cloud | Shelby | - | Emergency management reported a funnel cloud. |
| June 2024 | Hail | Shelby | - | The office received a report of quarter sized hail from a CO-OP observer. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelby | - | Public reported large trees blown down and roof damaged on home. |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelby | - | A 5th Wheel Trailer was overturned by damaging winds south of Shelby. |
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelby | - | Outbuildings were damaged by thunderstorm winds. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelby | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at around 60 mph caused a semi to jackknife near Shelby. |
| September 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelby | - | A spotter estimated thunderstorm wind gusts reached around 60 mph near Shelby. |
| August 2011 | Hail | Shelby | - | Nickel-size hail fell along with thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at around 50 mph. |
| September 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelby | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 60 mph downed 2 inch in diameter tree limbs scattered about the town. |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelby | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at around 60 mph blew a metal storage shed down. |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelby | - | A thunderstorm wind gust of 65 mph was measured by home equipment by a cooperative weather observer. The winds broke large trees in the area. |
| April 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelby | - | An uncalibrated anemometer off of a home weather station measured a thunderstorm wind gust of 105 mph. The wind speed was estimated here to be in the range of other wind gusts recorded with this event across east central Nebraska and Western Iowa from more potentially accurate sources. |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shelby | - | Barns and sheds destroyed. |
| May 2014 | Hail | Shelby | - | no account filed |
| July 2013 | Hail | Shelby | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Shelby | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Shelby | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Shelby | - | no account filed |
| May 2001 | Hail | Shelby | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Funnel Cloud | Shelby | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tennant | 5.4 miles | 8 | |
| Corley | 7.7 miles | 8 | |
| Portsmouth | 9.9 miles | 8 | |
| Harlan | 11.5 miles | 8 | |
| Westphalia | 14.4 miles | 8 | |
| Panama | 14.6 miles | 8 | |
| Rorbeck | 16.9 miles | 8 | |
| Kirkman | 17.6 miles | 8 |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 461554. 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.