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.
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
Saint Boniface Catholic Church Districtlisted 1991
Population over time
2 figuresWestphalia 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 127 | |
| 2020 | 126 | -1 (-1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 8 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 Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1978 USGS Panama quadrangle1:24000
- 1980 USGS Harlan quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
3 since 2006Regional 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/undetermined | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 June 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 June 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 18 February 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
9 since 2002Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2026 | Hail | Westphalia | - | 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 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Westphalia | - | Trained spotter measured wind gust using a handheld anemometer. Had consistent 45-55 mph gusts and one gust of 70 mph. |
| May 2024 | Tornado (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 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Westphalia | - | The spotter indicated that a large playground set was destroyed by the wind in the backyard of the home. |
| June 2014 | Hail | Westphalia | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Westphalia | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Westphalia | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Westphalia | - | no account filed |
| October 2002 | Hail | Westphalia | - | 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.
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 Westphalia | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1012317 | 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 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.




