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Westphalia, Iowa

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1980. It stands in Westphalia Township. It lies in ZIP code area 51578. The Survey maps it on the Panama quadrangle. 126 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,437 feet above sea level.

Westphalia within Shelby County

On record in Westphalia

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Westphalia fell from 127 to 126 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
2010127
2020126-1 (-1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 8 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

3 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Westphalia between 2006 and 2013, burning about 13 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/undetermined2
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
6 June 2006Missing data/not specified/undetermined10 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
30 June 2007Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
18 February 2013Equipment and vehicle use2.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Shelby County

Storms near this place

9 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Westphalia in 9 storm reports between 2002 and 2026: 6 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 2026HailWestphalia-Delayed public report via social media of mail measured up to quarter sized with picture and coin for reference via social media. Time estimated via radar.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindWestphalia-Trained spotter measured wind gust using a handheld anemometer. Had consistent 45-55 mph gusts and one gust of 70 mph.
May 2024Tornado (EF0)Westphalia-This brief spin-up tornado damaged roofs off an outbuilding and downed several trees. The peak winds in this tornado were estimated to be at 80 miles per hour. The maximum path width and estimated average path width were both 40 yards.
March 2017Thunderstorm WindWestphalia-The spotter indicated that a large playground set was destroyed by the wind in the backyard of the home.
June 2014HailWestphalia-no account filed
June 2005HailWestphalia-no account filed
June 2005HailWestphalia-no account filed
June 2004HailWestphalia-no account filed
October 2002HailWestphalia-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Shelby 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
Earling4.0 miles8
Panama4.1 miles8
Harlan5.9 miles8
Kirkman6.9 miles8
Defiance7.7 miles8
Portsmouth8.1 miles8
Tennant9.0 miles8
Corley10.3 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 WestphaliaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1012317The 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 462946. 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.