Traer, Iowa
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Perry Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50675. It stands on Little Coon Creek. The Survey maps it on the Traer quadrangle. 1,583 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 915 feet above sea level.
On record in Traer
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
Star-Clipper-Canfield Building and Winding Stairwaylisted 1975- John W. Young Round Barnlisted 1986
Population over time
2 figuresTraer fell from 1,703 to 1,583 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 | 1,703 | |
| 2020 | 1,583 | -120 (-7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 9 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 Waterloo quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1955 USGS Waterloo quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1971 USGS Traer quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Marshalltown quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
2 since 2011Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Traer between 2011 and 2017, 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/undetermined | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 May 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 370 AVE 180 ST, IA |
| 22 February 2017 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
47 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Traer in 47 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 20 hail, 10 heavy rain, 9 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2014 | Tornado (EF2) | Traer | $150,000 | Damage was done to homes in the Traer area. |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Traer | $75,000 | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Traer | $25,000 | no account filed |
| July 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Traer | $20,000 | Law enforcement reported power lines blown down onto a semi trailer. This is a delayed report and time estimated from radar. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Traer | $20,000 | Reports of several trees down in Traer with roof damage to a home on the south side of town. |
| April 2006 | Hail | Traer | $20,000 | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Traer | $15,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Traer | $15,000 | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Traer | $15,000 | no account filed |
| September 2010 | Lightning | Traer | $10,000 | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Traer | $10,000 | no account filed |
| March 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Traer | $10,000 | no account filed |
| April 1996 | Hail | Traer | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2010 | Hail | Traer | $5,000 | A trained spotter reported quarter size hail covering the road at the intersection of Highways 96 and 63 about 7 miles west of Traer. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Traer | $5,000 | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Traer | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Traer | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Traer | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Traer | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Traer | $3,000 | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Hail | Traer | $2,000 | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Hail | Traer | $2,000 | no account filed |
| May 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Traer | $1,000 | Brief touchdown in open country. |
| May 2000 | Hail | Traer | $1,000 | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Traer | $1,000 | no account filed |
| July 1995 | Hail | Traer | $1,000 | no account filed |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Traer | - | Report of multiple tree limbs down. |
| May 2024 | Flash Flood | Traer | - | P Ave closed from 145th to 155th St due to flooding. Reported by Tama County Engineer via social media. |
| May 2024 | Heavy Rain | Traer | - | Coop observer reported 24 hr heavy rainfall of 3.09 inches. |
| June 2021 | Funnel Cloud | Traer | - | Public report of funnel cloud via social media picture. |
| June 2020 | Heavy Rain | Traer | - | Coop observer recorded 2.57 inches of rainfall over the last 24 hours. |
| June 2020 | Heavy Rain | Traer | - | Trained spotter has measured around 4 inches of rain in the last 24 hours with 7.75 inches measured since Friday. Reported flooding in the wolf creek area. |
| June 2020 | Flood | Traer | - | The department of transportation relayed a report from the Tama county sheriff's office that there was flooding on US 63 south from just north of Traer by the golf course near Wolf Creek. Water was over the southbound lane roughly to the centerline. |
| June 2020 | Flood | Traer | - | Iowa Department of Transportation and the Tama county sheriff confirm both lanes of US 63 are covered in water as confirmed by multiple 911 calls. |
| August 2020 | Hail | Traer | - | Trained spotter reported mostly dime sized hail with a few stones up to quarter sized, accompanied by estimated 40 mph winds. |
| June 2018 | Hail | Traer | - | This is a delayed report. Public reported larger than quarter sized hail in Traer via multiple reports on social media including from KWWL, KCCI, KCRG. |
| August 2018 | Heavy Rain | Traer | - | Coop observer recorded heavy rainfall of 2.13 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| September 2018 | Heavy Rain | Traer | - | Trained spotter reported heavy rainfall of 6.57 inches. Due to database entry limitation, beginning time coded as midnight CST. Actual estimated start time of 1120pm CST on August 31st. |
| September 2018 | Heavy Rain | Traer | - | Coop observer recorded heavy rainfall of 6.57 inches over the last 24 hours. Due to database entry limitation, beginning time coded as midnight CST. |
| September 2018 | Flash Flood | Traer | - | County Sheriff's Office reported that the bridge on M Ave over Wolf Creek was under water due to the heavy rains overnight. Unknown beginning time of water over the bridge. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Traer | - | Trained spotter reported one medium sized tree branch down in their backyard. |
| April 2017 | Heavy Rain | Traer | - | Coop report of 1.35 inches over the past 24 hours and 1.70 inches over the past 48 hours. |
| June 2016 | Heavy Rain | Traer | - | Coop observer reported heavy rainfall of 2.25 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| September 2016 | Heavy Rain | Traer | - | Coop observer recorded heavy rainfall of 1.97 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| December 2015 | Heavy Rain | Traer | - | Coop observer reported heavy rainfall of 2.95 inches over the last 48 hours/storm total so far. |
| May 2003 | Hail | Traer | - | no account filed |
| August 1997 | Hail | Traer | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Union (historical) | 1.0 miles | 9 | |
| Buckingham (historical) | 1.4 miles | 9 | |
| Buckingham | 4.8 miles | 10 | |
| Dinsdale | 6.2 miles | 9 | |
| Clutier | 8.6 miles | 9 | |
| Dysart | 8.6 miles | 9 | |
| Mooreville (historical) | 9.5 miles | 9 | |
| Lincoln | 12.9 miles | 9 |
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 Traer | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2233271 | 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 462294. 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.



