BlockBefore

Swaledale, Iowa

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Pleasant Valley Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50477. The Survey maps it on the Swaledale quadrangle. 144 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,152 feet above sea level.

Swaledale within Cerro Gordo County

Population over time

2 figures

Swaledale fell from 165 to 144 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.

YearPeople Change
2010165
2020144-21 (-13%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 9 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Fires near this place

1 since 2011

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Swaledale in 2011, burning about 5 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/undetermined1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
21 March 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resources2967 MALLARD AVE, IA

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Cerro Gordo County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Swaledale: 9 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Sheriff PitSand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Swaledale Quarry and PitStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Ingebretson ParkSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Cerro Gordo County

Storms near this place

15 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Swaledale in 15 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 8 heavy rain, 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 flash flood. The reports record 2 injuries. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2007Thunderstorm WindSwaledale2 hurt, $50,000Two semis were blown over between mile markers 185 and 186 on interstate 35.
June 1998Tornado (F2)Swaledale$125,000no account filed
December 2021Thunderstorm WindSwaledale$50,000Public reported heavy damage to machine sheds and out buildings.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindSwaledale$15,000The Cerro Gordo County dispatch relayed a public report of strong winds blowing shingles off of a roof between Interstate 35 and Swaledale.
September 2025HailSwaledale-Quarter sized hail reported from the public library.
August 2022Heavy RainSwaledale-A 24 hour rainfall total of 3.08 inches.
May 2020Heavy RainSwaledale-CoCoRaHS report of 2.06 inches of rain. Beginning and end time roughly estimated from radar.
September 2020Heavy RainSwaledale-A CoCoRaHS observer reported 2.04 inches of rain.
June 2020Heavy RainSwaledale-CoCoRaHS observer reported a 24 hour rainfall total of 2.54 inches.
October 2019Heavy RainSwaledale-CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 2.31 inches over the past 24 hours.
June 2018Heavy RainSwaledale-CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 3.05 inches.
September 2018Heavy RainSwaledale-CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 3.45 inches over the last 24 hours.
May 2017Flash FloodSwaledale-Storm chaser reported 2 feet of fast rushing water has completely washed out Indigo Ave 1 mile south of Cerro Gordo County road B60 in Pleasant Valley Township along the upper reaches of the West Ford Cedar River. Water is moving swiftly and white capping over the roadway. Rain and small hail ongoing at the time of the report as well.
September 2016Heavy RainSwaledale-CoCoRaHS observer in Swaledale recorded heavy rainfall of 2.4 inches over the last 24 hours.
May 2012Thunderstorm WindSwaledale-Measured at the Iowa Department of Transportation Road Weather Information Site southwest of Mason City on Interstate 35.

Every storm recorded in Cerro Gordo County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Thornton4.3 miles9
Hurley5.0 miles8
Burchinal6.3 miles7
Rockwell6.6 miles9
Meservey9.7 miles9
Cameron9.9 miles8
Emery10.9 miles7
Hanford11.4 miles8

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 SwaledaleAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2239844The 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 462129. 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.