BlockBefore

Westgate, Iowa

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1901 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Fremont Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50681. The Survey maps it on the Maynard quadrangle. 192 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,093 feet above sea level.

Westgate within Fayette County

Population over time

2 figures

Westgate fell from 211 to 192 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
2010211
2020192-19 (-9%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 12 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

27 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 27 fires within 5 miles of Westgate between 2008 and 2020, burning about 105 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/undetermined12
Debris and open burning11
Equipment and vehicle use3
Smoking1

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
20 July 2012Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
30 June 2012Debris and open burningunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
26 June 2012Debris and open burning1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
21 May 2012Debris and open burning1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
19 May 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined10 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
18 May 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
22 April 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
19 April 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resources13376 U AVENUE, SUMNER, IA 50674, IOWA

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Fayette 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 Westgate: 2 past producers. 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.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Fayette County

Storms near this place

22 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Westgate in 22 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 9 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 2 flash flood, 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2014Thunderstorm WindWestgate$940,000Barns were blown down near Westgate with tin strewn across a road. Another barn was blown down with cattle trapped inside the debris, two of which died. Part of a roof was blown off a building used for milking, exposing an office, with the rain soaking office supplies and computers. On the same farm, part of free stall barn was ripped off and a shed was destroyed. Numerous trees and power lines were blown down in town and a church roof sustained damage from the high winds. Some of the trees were 2 to 4 feet in diameter and were either uprooted or snapped off about 20 feet above the ground. Two grain bins were blown over and landed on a building and a truck.
May 2011Tornado (EF1)Westgate$175,000This was the first of two tornadoes to hit Fayette County. This tornado tracked east-northeast across the western part of the county. The tornado snapped off or uprooted numerous trees and damaged several homes, barns and grain bins.
July 2009Thunderstorm WindWestgate$125,000A two mile long path of destruction occurred from approximately 150th Street and S and U Avenues. Numerous barns, bins and outbuildings were demolished. One farm north of Sumner was hit particularly hard. The residence sustained damage and its attached garage was ripped away, with two vehicles in the garage a total loss. Also, a mobile home was severely damaged. Approximately 600 acres of corn and soybeans were shredded by the hail and wind, with crop damage totals nearly a half of a million dollars.
April 2008FloodWestgate$60,000No homes or businesses had major damage due to flood waters, although there were widespread reports of basement flooding in homes. Due to the excessive rainfall, the Turkey River at Eldorado rose 8 feet in 9 hours on the morning of April 25. The Turkey River crested at 18.07 feet at Eldorado, which was only 1.5 feet below the record level of 19.6 feet.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindWestgate$50,000Several farm out buildings were damaged or blown down and some corn was flattened northeast of Westgate.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindWestgate$25,000Severe thunderstorm winds damaged several farm outbuildings, including a new grain bin. A NWS storm survey concluded the damage was created by straight-line winds of estimated speeds up to 90 mph.
June 1997Thunderstorm WindWestgate$15,000no account filed
August 1996Thunderstorm WindWestgate$15,000no account filed
June 2018Flash FloodWestgate$6,000Runoff from heavy rain pushed several small creeks out of their banks over the southwest part of Fayette County. Several roads west and southwest of Maynard were covered by floodwaters, including State Highway 150 between Maynard and Oelwein.
July 2009HailWestgate$5,000no account filed
July 2020Thunderstorm WindWestgate$2,000Three large trees were blown down west of Randalia.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindWestgate$2,000Severe thunderstorms winds blew down a tree, broke some windows and created a propane leak.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindWestgate$750no account filed
June 2023HailWestgate-Public reported 1 inch hail near Westgate.
July 2017Flash FloodWestgate-Locally heavy rains pushed the Little Wapsipinicon River and small creeks that feed the river out of their banks. These flood waters covered roads northwest of Westgate.
April 2014HailWestgate-Quarter sized hail was reported in far western Fayette County near Sumner.
April 2014HailWestgate-Golf ball sized hail fell near Westgate. Enough hail fell that it covered the ground.
July 2010Funnel CloudWestgate-Law enforcement received several reports of funnel clouds between Westgate and Maynard.
July 2017HailWestgate-no account filed
March 2017HailWestgate-no account filed
May 2003HailWestgate-no account filed
April 2002HailWestgate-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Fayette 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
Maynard6.0 miles12
Oran6.3 miles9
Oelwein8.0 miles12
Randalia8.7 miles12
Donnan10.7 miles12
Fayette11.4 miles12
Hawkeye11.9 miles12
Richfield12.9 miles9

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 WestgateAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2134530The 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 462940. 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.