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Elkhart, Iowa

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1911 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Elkhart Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50073. It stands on Coon Creek. The Survey maps it on the Elkhart quadrangle. 882 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 978 feet above sea level.

Elkhart within Polk County

Population over time

2 figures

Elkhart grew from 683 to 882 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
2010683
2020882+199 (+29%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 11 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

17 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 17 fires within 5 miles of Elkhart between 2009 and 2018, burning about 884 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/undetermined9
Debris and open burning6
Equipment and vehicle use1
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
3 August 2012Debris and open burning1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
6 April 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.5 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
6 April 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resources16110 NE 68TH ST., IA
28 April 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
11 April 2014Debris and open burning100 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
10 April 2014Smoking17 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
30 March 2014Debris and open burningunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
28 March 2015Debris and open burning3.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Polk County

Storms near this place

26 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Elkhart in 26 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 8 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail, 6 flash flood, 3 heavy rain. The reports record 1 death. 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 2018Flash FloodElkhart1 killed, $1,000,000Emergency manager reported multiple water rescues across Ankeny, Johnston, Des Moines and Urbandale. Vehicles were stalled out in street flooding with water half way up the doors of some cars.
June 2018Flash FloodElkhart$250,000Public reported that Delaware Ave was under water north of NE 36th St in Ankeny.
June 2018Flash FloodElkhart$250,000Public reported multiple vehicles stalled along Delaware Ave in Ankeny.
June 2018Flash FloodElkhart$250,000Public relayed a picture of flooding along Fourmile Creek.
August 2010Flash FloodElkhart$50,000At least 6 inches of water running across Interstate 35 at mile post 97. Multiple cars spun out.
September 2001Thunderstorm WindElkhart$50,000no account filed
July 1994Thunderstorm WindElkhart$50,000no account filed
July 2024LightningElkhart$20,000Emergency management confirmed report of lightning strike at a house/barn located near Elkhart, which caused a fire.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindElkhart$10,000Several power poles were blown down.
September 2005HailElkhart$10,000no account filed
September 2004Tornado (F0)Elkhart$5,000Tornado made a brief touchtown in open country.
June 2011HailElkhart$3,000no account filed
June 2002HailElkhart$3,000no account filed
September 2002HailElkhart$3,000no account filed
June 2010Thunderstorm WindElkhart$2,000no account filed
July 2025Thunderstorm WindElkhart-Social media report of a wind gust measured at 67 mph.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindElkhart-Peak wind gust from the RWIS mesonet station RAKI4 Ankeny.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindElkhart-Mesonet station reported a 74 kts wind gust.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindElkhart-Mesonet station reported a 60 knot wind gust.
May 2019Heavy RainElkhart-CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 2.23 inches over the last 24 hours.
July 2018Flash FloodElkhart-Emergency manager reported multiple water rescues across Ankeny, Johnston, Des Moines and Urbandale. Vehicles were stalled out in street flooding with water half way up the doors of some cars. Flooded roadways were observed through the night across the Des Moines metro area from the heavy rain on the evening of 30 June 2018.
July 2018FloodElkhart-Low lying areas still flooded across portions of the county along with water over some secondary roads and over parts of Hwy 17 near Granger. Water damage was estimated to have affected over 4,700 structures throughout the county, of those 4,700+ structures, over 200 structures had major damage or were destroyed. Flooding resulted in at least 15 road extended road closures throughout the county. Several trails, campgrounds and parks were closed due to flooding as well.
July 2018Heavy RainElkhart-Trained spotter reported heavy rainfall of 6.92 inches. Due to reporting database limitation, this report is coded for midnight CST. Estimated start time was 6pm CDT June 30th, ending 1242am CDT July 1st.
July 2018Heavy RainElkhart-CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 7.15 inches over the last 24 hours. Due to database entry limitation, beginning time coded as midnight CST.
August 2018HailElkhart-no account filed
May 1997HailElkhart-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Polk 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
Enterprise4.1 miles16
Quilhart (historical)5.1 miles16
Alleman5.1 miles11
Loring5.5 miles8
Ankeny6.2 miles16
Bondurant7.0 miles12
Oralabor7.2 miles16
Crocker7.9 miles12

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 ElkhartAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1914696The 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 456304. 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.