Thayer, Iowa
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1951 and the latest in 1993. It stands in Jones Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50254. The Survey maps it on the Lorimor South quadrangle. 51 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,106 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresThayer fell from 59 to 51 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 | 59 | |
| 2020 | 51 | -8 (-14%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 11 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 Afton quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1983 USGS Lorimor South quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Creston quadrangle1:100000
- 1993 USGS Creston quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
9 since 2011Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 9 fires within 5 miles of Thayer between 2011 and 2020, burning about 358 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 5 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 June 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 110TH AVE MURRAY IA, IA |
| 22 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 April 2013 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 April 2015 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 7 March 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 March 2020 | Debris and open burning | 7.5 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 March 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 3030 197TH AFTON, IA, IA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
5 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Thayer: 3 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring Valley Lake | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Thayer Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Thayer Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Unknown | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
10 since 2005Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Thayer in 10 storm reports between 2005 and 2025: 5 heavy rain, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2007 | Tornado (EF0) | Thayer | $75,000 | Tornado formed on the back side of a bow echo. Damage was limited to EF0, but evidence suggested weak circulation. |
| September 2018 | Flash Flood | Thayer | $10,000 | Emergency manager reported road closure due to flooding on 275th Street near Yucca Ave. Time and location estimated from radar. This is a delayed report. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Thayer | $10,000 | no account filed |
| September 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Thayer | $5,000 | Delayed report. Two maple trees blown down. Damage to the top of an oak tree. Power lines damaged due to fallen trees. |
| April 2025 | Hail | Thayer | - | Quarter sized hail reported at the US 169 and US 34 intersection. |
| November 2022 | Heavy Rain | Thayer | - | A 24 hour rain total of 3.30 inches. |
| July 2019 | Heavy Rain | Thayer | - | Trained spotter reported storm total heavy rainfall of 1.80 inches. Times estimated from radar. |
| June 2018 | Heavy Rain | Thayer | - | CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 2.12 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| September 2018 | Heavy Rain | Thayer | - | CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 4.65 inches over the last 24 hours. Due to database entry limitation, beginning time coded as midnight CST. |
| September 2016 | Heavy Rain | Thayer | - | CoCoRaHS observer reported heavy rainfall of 2.22 inches over the last 24 hours. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Talmage | 3.2 miles | 11 | |
| Afton Junction (historical) | 3.9 miles | 11 | |
| Monette | 4.1 miles | 11 | |
| Shepard (historical) | 6.1 miles | 8 | |
| Lorimor | 6.9 miles | 11 | |
| Afton | 7.8 miles | 11 | |
| Arispe | 10.4 miles | 8 | |
| Shannon City | 14.2 miles | 8 |
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 Thayer | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2233253 | 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 462202. 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.






