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Zearing, Iowa

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1993. It stands in Lincoln Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50278. The Survey maps it on the Zearing quadrangle. 528 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,056 feet above sea level.

Zearing within Story County

On record in Zearing

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

Zearing fell from 554 to 528 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
2010554
2020528-26 (-5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 9 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

2 since 2013

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Zearing between 2013 and 2015, burning about 2 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
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
28 June 2013Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
21 March 2015Debris and open burning1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Story County

Storms near this place

40 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Zearing in 40 storm reports between 2001 and 2025: 14 thunderstorm wind, 9 heavy rain, 8 hail, 4 flash 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
September 2018LightningZearing$1,000,000A local photographer came across a smoldering wind turbine that had been struck by lightning overnight. It also had previous damage from a tornado earlier in the year.
May 2013Flash FloodZearing$250,000Many roads in the east part of the county experiencing flooding. Water over parts of Highway 65 in Zearing.
May 2013Flash FloodZearing$100,000NWS CO-OP observer and Emergency Manager report flash flooding in and near Zearing. Highway 65 is under water in two places, including south 140th St. County pavement E18 is closed in several places east and west of Zearing.
May 2013Flash FloodZearing$100,000Minerva Creek in Zearing out of its banks and flooding parts of town.
September 2011Thunderstorm WindZearing$100,000High winds damaged farm buildings and crops.
August 2004Tornado (F1)Zearing$75,000Tornado tracked across fields northeast of Zearing and damaged buildings and crops.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindZearing$50,000Numerous 40 to 50 foot trees down in Zearing.
March 2007Thunderstorm WindZearing$30,000no account filed
August 2010Flash FloodZearing$25,000Water running over Highway 65 just south of Zearing.
June 2014Tornado (EF0)Zearing$20,000This is a multiple segment tornado with three segments that passed through portions of Story, Marshall and Hardin counties. This is the first segment in Story county. This longer track tornado formed about a mile and a half east of Zearing where a farmstead sustained roof damage to multiple buildings. The relatively narrow tornado continued to the NE, with RFD winds destroying 6 grain bins and an outbuilding just south of the track. The tornado then passed into Marshall county.
May 2016Thunderstorm WindZearing$10,000Coop observer reported several big tree limbs down.
August 2004Thunderstorm WindZearing$10,000no account filed
July 2007Thunderstorm WindZearing$5,000no account filed
September 2001Thunderstorm WindZearing$5,000no account filed
October 2004HailZearing$2,000no account filed
May 2025HailZearing-Pea to nickel sized hail with a few stones up to quarter sized.
July 2024Heavy RainZearing-Reports of 3.5 to 4 inches of rain in several locations around Zearing.
July 2024HailZearing-MPING report of 1-inch hail. Time of occurrence estimated from radar.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindZearing-Several tree limbs down with the biggest being 15 inches in diameter.
August 2022HailZearing-Golf ball sized hail ongoing at time of report.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindZearing-Widespread one to two inch diameter tree limbs down with larger old branches down. A few windows in town were blown out due to wind driven hail and hail was piled several inches deep in a few locations.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindZearing-Pictures with damage to siding and roofs consistent with damage from wind driven hail.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindZearing-An 18 inch diameter tree snapped. Image posted on social media, time estimated via radar.
June 2021Funnel CloudZearing-Fire Department reported a funnel cloud.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindZearing-A trained spotter reported damage to trees and grain bins. Time estimated.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindZearing-Emergency manager relayed trained spotter reports of 60 to 70 mph winds.
May 2017HailZearing-Coop observer reported quarter sized hail.
June 2017HailZearing-Coop observer reported quarter sized hail. This is a delayed report and time estimated from radar.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindZearing-Coop observer reported estimated wind gusts to 60 mph or more. This is a delayed report and time estimated from radar.
September 2016Heavy RainZearing-Coop observer recorded heavy rainfall of 2.25 inches over the last 24 hours.
September 2016Heavy RainZearing-Coop observer reported heavy rainfall of 3.76 inches.
August 2016Heavy RainZearing-Coop observer reported heavy rainfall of 1.62 inches over the last 24 hours.
August 2016Heavy RainZearing-Coop observer recorded heavy rainfall of 2.78 inches over the last 24 hours.
December 2015Heavy RainZearing-Coop observer reported heavy rainfall of 4.55 inches over the last 48 hours/storm total so far.
April 2014Heavy RainZearing-Storm total rainfall for the two days was 2.55 inches.
June 2014Heavy RainZearing-Twenty four hour rainfall total of 2.44 inches.
May 2013Heavy RainZearing-Twenty four hour rainfall total of 1.33 inches, total 3.17 over two days.
June 2010Tornado (EF0)Zearing-Brief landspout briefly touched the ground. Numerous other funnels.
August 2022HailZearing-no account filed
June 2005HailZearing-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Story 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
McCallsburg4.7 miles9
Fernald8.1 miles9
Colo9.9 miles9
Roland10.9 miles15
Nevada12.6 miles9
Story City15.9 miles15
Shipley16.9 miles11
Bloomington17.0 miles16

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 ZearingAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1929021The 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 463254. 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.