BlockBefore

Swea City, Iowa

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Harrison Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50590. The Survey maps it on the Swea City quadrangle. 566 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,181 feet above sea level.

Swea City within Kossuth County

On record in Swea City

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 figures

Swea City grew from 536 to 566 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
2010536
2020566+30 (+6%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 7 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

4 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Swea City between 2009 and 2015, burning about 23 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/undetermined4

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
29 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resources2 NORTH ON P30 FROM SWEA CITY, IA
14 April 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
28 March 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined15 acresIowa Wetland Management DistrictBLAZING STAR WF
6 October 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resources40TH AVE AND 450TH ST., IA

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Kossuth County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Swea City: 1 past producer, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown

Every working recorded in Kossuth County

Storms near this place

45 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Swea City in 45 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 17 hail, 15 thunderstorm wind, 10 heavy rain, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
September 2019Thunderstorm WindSwea City$100,000Emergency Manager reported power lines, grain bins, residential and farm building damage damaged or destroyed, heavy tree damage, and an emergency communication tower destroyed.
July 2002Thunderstorm WindSwea City$40,000no account filed
May 1996Thunderstorm WindSwea City$40,000no account filed
May 1998FloodSwea City$20,000no account filed
July 1998Thunderstorm WindSwea City$20,000no account filed
July 2011Thunderstorm WindSwea City$15,000Emergency Manager reported several trees down in town by estimated winds of 60 to 70 MPH.
July 2007Thunderstorm WindSwea City$15,000no account filed
May 2012HailSwea City$10,000no account filed
May 2012HailSwea City$5,000Torrential rainfall also reported.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindSwea City$5,000Large trees down, one was an 18 inch diameter Ash tree.
July 2009HailSwea City$5,000no account filed
July 2007Thunderstorm WindSwea City$5,000no account filed
July 2007Thunderstorm WindSwea City$5,000no account filed
March 2007HailSwea City$5,000no account filed
July 1995Thunderstorm WindSwea City$5,000no account filed
June 2010HailSwea City$3,000no account filed
July 2009HailSwea City$3,000no account filed
May 2001HailSwea City$3,000no account filed
June 2016HailSwea City$2,000Emergency Manager reported grape sized hail. Relayed via the Swea City Fire Chief.
September 2012Thunderstorm WindSwea City$2,000An 8 inch diameter branch was down across the driveway.
June 2004HailSwea City$2,000no account filed
July 2012HailSwea City$1,000no account filed
June 2010HailSwea City$1,000no account filed
June 2004HailSwea City$1,000no account filed
April 2025HailSwea City-Report via mping.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindSwea City-Large tree branch downed in Swea City. Time estimated from radar.
August 2022Heavy RainSwea City-A 24 hour rainfall total of 3.40 inches.
July 2021Heavy RainSwea City-A 24 hour rain total of 2.83 inches.
August 2021Heavy RainSwea City-A 24 hour rainfall of 5.25 inches.
May 2020Heavy RainSwea City-CO-OP report of 3.34 inches of rain. Beginning and end time roughly estimated from radar.
May 2020Heavy RainSwea City-CoCoRaHS report of 2.92 inches of rain. Beginning and end time roughly estimated from radar.
September 2019Thunderstorm WindSwea City-Emergency manager estimated wind speeds 60 to 70 mph.
September 2018Heavy RainSwea City-CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 3.2 inches over the last 24 hours.
August 2017Heavy RainSwea City-Coop observer reported heavy rainfall of 2.93 inches over the last 24 hours.
July 2017Thunderstorm WindSwea City-Trained spotter estimated winds at 60 to 65 mph. Also report lots of small tree branches down.
April 2016Thunderstorm WindSwea City-Emergency Manager reported wind gusts to 60 mph, along with pea sized hail.
June 2016HailSwea City-Kossuth County EM reported dime to nickel sized hail.
September 2016Heavy RainSwea City-Coop observer reported heavy rainfall of 2.08 inches.
October 2016HailSwea City-Trained spotter measured penny to dime sized hail.
June 2010Funnel CloudSwea City-The funnel cloud was reported to be rotating and lowering.
June 2008Heavy RainSwea City-Rainfall of 1.46 inches.
June 2010Funnel CloudSwea City-no account filed
May 2008Heavy RainSwea City-no account filed
May 2004HailSwea City-no account filed
June 1999HailSwea City-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Kossuth 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
Swea (historical)4.2 miles7
Gerled6.7 miles7
Seneca6.9 miles7
Bancroft8.1 miles7
Ledyard8.5 miles7
Moores Siding (historical)11.2 miles7
Lone Rock11.5 miles7
Lakota11.7 miles7

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 Swea CityAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1925141The 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 461494. 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.