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West Liberty, Iowa

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1894 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Wapsinonoc Township. It lies in ZIP code area 52776. It stands on Middle Branch Wapsinonoc Creek. The Survey maps it on the West Liberty quadrangle. 3,858 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 676 feet above sea level.

West Liberty within Muscatine County

On record in West Liberty

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 6 records

Population over time

2 figures

West Liberty grew from 3,736 to 3,858 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
20103,736
20203,858+122 (+3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 11 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 2012

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of West Liberty in 2012, burning about 400 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
17 March 2012Debris and open burning400 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Every fire recorded in Muscatine County

Storms near this place

27 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names West Liberty in 27 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 12 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 4 tornado, 1 lightning. The reports record 1 injury. 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
June 1997Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty1 hurt, $15,000An eleven year old girl was injured by flying glass when a tree struck her home. The tree struck the house and smashed a window as the girl and her parents were running to the basement for shelter. The family also lost numerous trees and one grain bin.
August 2009FloodWest Liberty$500,000no account filed
April 2008Tornado (EF2)West Liberty$200,000This tornado touched down 5.2 miles northeast of Nichols and tracked to the northeast before lifting 2 miles west of Moscow. The EF2 tornado was on the ground for 6.5 miles, had maximum winds to 115 mph and was 150 yards wide. There were 5 farmsteads that were hit by the tornado, but no injuries were reported. Siding and shingles of two homes were peeled off. Outbuildings were damaged, a machine shed and grain bin destroyed, and a wooden swingset toppled. Utility poles were snapped or blown down, while several trees were snapped or uprooted.
May 2011Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$25,000Wind gusts estimated to be 70 mph destroyed a garage and caused extensive tree damage at a home near Highway 70 and 130th Street just southeast of West Liberty, IA around 520 pm CDT May 22.
May 2011Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$25,000Wind gusts estimated to be 70 mph blew a roof off of a barn near West Liberty, IA at 530 pm CDT May 24.
June 2010Flash FloodWest Liberty$10,000Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding of parts of Highway 6 between West Liberty, IA and Atalissa, IA as well as County Road F58 between Durant, IA and Stockton, IA during the morning of June 23. Portions of these roads were closed due to the flooding.
April 2001Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$10,000Thunderstorm winds destroyed a large shed. Reported in local newspaper. Time is estimated.
July 1995Tornado (F0)West Liberty$5,000no account filed
April 2006HailWest Liberty$2,000no account filed
May 2004Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty$2,000no account filed
August 2007LightningWest Liberty$500Lightning struck a tree at the First Church United in West Liberty, IA on August 8th. Time estimated. Electricity and phone services were lost. One computer was damaged at the church.
April 2026Tornado (EF0)West Liberty-An EF0 tornado lofted a corn crib, snapped trees, bent an auger, and partially destroyed a roof on a farm outbuilding. This tornado began in Johnson County, Iowa.
May 2024Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Numerous trees and branches down across West Liberty, Iowa.
April 2024Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-County Dispatch relayed a report of a large tree down on a vehicle.
May 2023Tornado (EF1)West Liberty-This tornado developed just NNW of West Liberty and tracked across the far northeast part of town before eventually crossing over U.S. Highway 6 between West Liberty and Atalissa, and diminishing shortly after. The extent of the damage was mainly to outbuildings, with several walls and roofs collapsed and in some cases blown across a downstream field. A few large trees and two utility poles were also snapped. A large metal batting cage anchored into concrete was twisted and bent sharply at its base.
May 2023HailWest Liberty-Report from Mping.
May 2023HailWest Liberty-Report from Mping.
July 2018Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-A public report was received via social media of 5 to 6 inch in diameter tree limbs down. The time was estimated by radar.
February 2017HailWest Liberty-A spotter reported quarter size hail.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Severe thunderstorm winds downed large trees in West Liberty.
July 2002Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-Large tree blown down on a car. The car was unoccupied.
May 2024Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-no account filed
April 2006HailWest Liberty-no account filed
March 2005HailWest Liberty-no account filed
May 2000HailWest Liberty-no account filed
June 1999HailWest Liberty-no account filed
June 1998Thunderstorm WindWest Liberty-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Muscatine 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
Atalissa5.2 miles12
Nichols6.6 miles8
Dayfield (historical)9.4 miles9
Moscow9.6 miles14
Ardon12.7 miles9
Kent Estates13.1 miles12
Wilton13.2 miles14
Cranston13.2 miles8

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 West LibertyAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2066047The 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 462879. 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.