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Van Wert, Iowa

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1981. It stands in Long Creek Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50262. The Survey maps it on the Van Wert quadrangle. 178 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,161 feet above sea level.

Van Wert within Decatur County

Population over time

2 figures

Van Wert fell from 230 to 178 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
2010230
2020178-52 (-23%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 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

1 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Van Wert in 2018, burning about 80 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 burning1

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
22 April 2018Debris and open burning80 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Decatur 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 Van Wert: 1 past producer, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: 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
Dekalb QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Old Dekalb QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Decatur County

Storms near this place

19 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Van Wert in 19 storm reports between 1996 and 2019: 9 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood, 1 heavy rain. 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
May 1998Thunderstorm WindVan Wert$150,000no account filed
May 1998Thunderstorm WindVan Wert$100,000no account filed
May 2015Thunderstorm WindVan Wert$50,000Trees were reported down on houses in town and power was out. Relayed by KCCI TV.
April 2010Thunderstorm WindVan Wert$25,000A grain bin was blown across the road and large tree branches were downed. Siding was ripped off of a house.
July 2009FloodVan Wert$10,000no account filed
June 2010Thunderstorm WindVan Wert$5,000Few large 10 inch diameter tree limbs down. Wind gust estimated at 70 MPH.
May 2009HailVan Wert$5,000Hail covered the ground.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindVan Wert$5,000Power lines were downed near Van Wert.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindVan Wert$5,000Power poles were leaning east of Weldon.
April 1999HailVan Wert$5,000no account filed
July 1996Thunderstorm WindVan Wert$5,000no account filed
March 2006HailVan Wert$3,000no account filed
May 2013HailVan Wert$1,000no account filed
July 1996HailVan Wert$1,000no account filed
June 2019HailVan Wert-Trained spotter reported lots of quarter sized hail with a few to half dollar in size. Significant crop damage was noted to the north of this location with corn and bean fields decimated. Hail size that did damage to the fields was unknown.
June 2019HailVan Wert-Emergency manager reported swaths of stripped crops at the Clarke/Decatur county line. This is a delayed report and time estimated from radar.
July 2017HailVan Wert-Trained spotter reported dime to nickel sized hail and very heavy rainfall, including some ditches full.
August 2014Heavy RainVan Wert-Rainfall of 3.25 inches was measured in the past 24 hours.
June 2001HailVan Wert-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Decatur 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
Weldon3.6 miles7
Kingston4.4 miles7
Decatur9.1 miles10
Leon9.3 miles7
Grand River9.6 miles7
Garden Grove10.3 miles7
Le Roy10.6 miles7
Barrell (historical)12.5 miles10

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 Van WertAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2239823The 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 462538. 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.