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.
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
- Des Moines River Bridgelisted 1998
Population over time
2 figuresSwea 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 536 | |
| 2020 | 566 | +30 (+6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 7 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 Fairmont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:250000
- 1980 USGS Swea City quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Estherville quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
4 since 2009Regional 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/undetermined | 4 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 2 NORTH ON P30 FROM SWEA CITY, IA |
| 14 April 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 28 March 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 acres | Iowa Wetland Management District | BLAZING STAR WF |
| 6 October 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 40TH AVE AND 450TH ST., IA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional 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.
Storms near this place
45 since 1995Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swea City | $100,000 | Emergency Manager reported power lines, grain bins, residential and farm building damage damaged or destroyed, heavy tree damage, and an emergency communication tower destroyed. |
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swea City | $40,000 | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swea City | $40,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Flood | Swea City | $20,000 | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swea City | $20,000 | no account filed |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swea City | $15,000 | Emergency Manager reported several trees down in town by estimated winds of 60 to 70 MPH. |
| July 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swea City | $15,000 | no account filed |
| May 2012 | Hail | Swea City | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2012 | Hail | Swea City | $5,000 | Torrential rainfall also reported. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swea City | $5,000 | Large trees down, one was an 18 inch diameter Ash tree. |
| July 2009 | Hail | Swea City | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swea City | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swea City | $5,000 | no account filed |
| March 2007 | Hail | Swea City | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swea City | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Swea City | $3,000 | no account filed |
| July 2009 | Hail | Swea City | $3,000 | no account filed |
| May 2001 | Hail | Swea City | $3,000 | no account filed |
| June 2016 | Hail | Swea City | $2,000 | Emergency Manager reported grape sized hail. Relayed via the Swea City Fire Chief. |
| September 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swea City | $2,000 | An 8 inch diameter branch was down across the driveway. |
| June 2004 | Hail | Swea City | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2012 | Hail | Swea City | $1,000 | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Swea City | $1,000 | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Swea City | $1,000 | no account filed |
| April 2025 | Hail | Swea City | - | Report via mping. |
| June 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swea City | - | Large tree branch downed in Swea City. Time estimated from radar. |
| August 2022 | Heavy Rain | Swea City | - | A 24 hour rainfall total of 3.40 inches. |
| July 2021 | Heavy Rain | Swea City | - | A 24 hour rain total of 2.83 inches. |
| August 2021 | Heavy Rain | Swea City | - | A 24 hour rainfall of 5.25 inches. |
| May 2020 | Heavy Rain | Swea City | - | CO-OP report of 3.34 inches of rain. Beginning and end time roughly estimated from radar. |
| May 2020 | Heavy Rain | Swea City | - | CoCoRaHS report of 2.92 inches of rain. Beginning and end time roughly estimated from radar. |
| September 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swea City | - | Emergency manager estimated wind speeds 60 to 70 mph. |
| September 2018 | Heavy Rain | Swea City | - | CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 3.2 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| August 2017 | Heavy Rain | Swea City | - | Coop observer reported heavy rainfall of 2.93 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| July 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swea City | - | Trained spotter estimated winds at 60 to 65 mph. Also report lots of small tree branches down. |
| April 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swea City | - | Emergency Manager reported wind gusts to 60 mph, along with pea sized hail. |
| June 2016 | Hail | Swea City | - | Kossuth County EM reported dime to nickel sized hail. |
| September 2016 | Heavy Rain | Swea City | - | Coop observer reported heavy rainfall of 2.08 inches. |
| October 2016 | Hail | Swea City | - | Trained spotter measured penny to dime sized hail. |
| June 2010 | Funnel Cloud | Swea City | - | The funnel cloud was reported to be rotating and lowering. |
| June 2008 | Heavy Rain | Swea City | - | Rainfall of 1.46 inches. |
| June 2010 | Funnel Cloud | Swea City | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Heavy Rain | Swea City | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Swea City | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Swea City | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swea (historical) | 4.2 miles | 7 | |
| Gerled | 6.7 miles | 7 | |
| Seneca | 6.9 miles | 7 | |
| Bancroft | 8.1 miles | 7 | |
| Ledyard | 8.5 miles | 7 | |
| Moores Siding (historical) | 11.2 miles | 7 | |
| Lone Rock | 11.5 miles | 7 | |
| Lakota | 11.7 miles | 7 |
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 City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1925141 | 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 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.



