De Soto, Iowa
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1949 and the latest in 1993. It stands in Van Meter Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50069. It stands on Bulger Creek. The Survey maps it on the Adel quadrangle. 915 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 942 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresDe Soto fell from 1,050 to 915 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 | 1,050 | |
| 2020 | 915 | -135 (-13%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 14 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.
- 1949 USGS Adel quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1951 USGS Adel quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Omaha quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1982 USGS Adel quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Guthrie Center quadrangle1:100000
- 1993 USGS Guthrie Center quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
3 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of De Soto between 2009 and 2014, burning about 28 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 burning | 2 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 March 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 20 March 2014 | Debris and open burning | 1.5 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 20 March 2014 | Debris and open burning | 25 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 11 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 11 workings within 5 miles of De Soto: 10 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| De Soto Brick and Tile Works | Clay | Past Producer | ||
| Earlham Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| I-80 Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Clay | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
40 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names De Soto in 40 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 22 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 1 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1998 | Tornado (F1) | De Soto | $250,000 | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Soto | $100,000 | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Soto | $50,000 | no account filed |
| April 1999 | Tornado (F3) | De Soto | $40,000 | no account filed |
| August 2014 | Hail | De Soto | $10,000 | Golf ball size hail reported by a KCWI Television viewer. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Soto | $10,000 | Reports of 60 to 65 MPH winds and nickel hail at the intersection of Highway 169 and Interstate 80. |
| June 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Soto | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | De Soto | $10,000 | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Flash Flood | De Soto | $10,000 | no account filed |
| April 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Soto | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | De Soto | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | De Soto | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | De Soto | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Soto | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2014 | Hail | De Soto | $3,000 | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | De Soto | $3,000 | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | De Soto | $3,000 | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Soto | $3,000 | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | De Soto | $2,000 | Estimated quarter size hail along with winds estimated around 50 MPH at the De Soto exit on I-80. |
| May 2005 | Hail | De Soto | $2,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | De Soto | $2,000 | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Soto | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Soto | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Soto | - | Four to five inch tree branches down. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Soto | - | A trained spotter reported 70 mph winds with lots of small trees down and several anchored swing sets toppled over. |
| April 2019 | Hail | De Soto | - | Public reported quarter sized hail, via the mPING app. |
| April 2019 | Hail | De Soto | - | Trained spotter reported nickel to quarter sized hail. |
| June 2017 | Hail | De Soto | - | Trained spotter reported golf ball sized hail. |
| March 2017 | Hail | De Soto | - | Law enforcement relayed public report of up to quarter sized hail. |
| September 2017 | Heavy Rain | De Soto | - | Public reported storm total heavy rainfall of 2.60 inches between Earlham and De Soto. |
| June 2015 | Hail | De Soto | - | Trained spotter reported quarter sized hail at their home just north of De Soto. |
| June 2015 | Hail | De Soto | - | Law Enforcement reported penny sized hail. |
| June 2015 | Hail | De Soto | - | Amateur Radio report of penny sized hail. |
| June 2015 | Hail | De Soto | - | State Official reported pea to quarter sized hail with 55 mph wind gusts. |
| May 2015 | Funnel Cloud | De Soto | - | A public report of a funnel cloud going up and down multiple times was relayed through the Dallas County EM. |
| March 2006 | Tornado (F0) | De Soto | - | Brief touchdown in open fields. |
| June 2011 | Hail | De Soto | - | no account filed |
| April 2010 | Hail | De Soto | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | De Soto | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Soto | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Van Meter | 2.9 miles | 11 | |
| Quarry | 3.7 miles | 14 | |
| Garretville | 3.9 miles | 14 | |
| Adel | 5.7 miles | 14 | |
| Ortonville | 6.3 miles | 11 | |
| Booneville | 6.7 miles | 11 | |
| Kennedy | 8.0 miles | 14 | |
| Waukee | 8.6 miles | 11 |
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 De Soto | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1933564 | 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 455823. 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.







