Martensdale, Iowa
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1931 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Jefferson Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50160. It stands on Clanton Creek. The Survey maps it on the Martensdale quadrangle. 421 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 830 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresMartensdale fell from 465 to 421 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 | 465 | |
| 2020 | 421 | -44 (-9%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 11 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.
- 1931 USGS Indianola quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1954 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Martensdale quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Indianola quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
2 since 2013Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Martensdale between 2013 and 2015, burning about 14 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 | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 September 2013 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 21 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | 13 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
21 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Martensdale in 21 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 9 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail, 4 tornado, 1 funnel cloud. 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 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Martensdale | $125,000 | Building and house partially destroyed on 50th Ave and Highway 92. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Martensdale | $40,000 | All windows broken out of house. |
| May 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Martensdale | $40,000 | A Morton building was destroyed. |
| May 2024 | Tornado (EF0) | Martensdale | $30,000 | This brief tornado passed through Martensdale producing ample tree damage with minor shingle damage. The tornado also produced a brief TDS on the radar as well. This tornado dissipated after exiting the northeast side of town. |
| July 2015 | Flash Flood | Martensdale | $25,000 | Department of Transportation reported flooding on Iowa Highway 28 at the 0.5 mile marker. Delayed report. |
| May 2001 | Hail | Martensdale | $20,000 | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Martensdale | $15,000 | Power lines down on Highway 28 just north of Martensdale and tree limbs down on a house in Martensdale. |
| September 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Martensdale | $15,000 | no account filed |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Martensdale | $10,000 | Law enforcement replayed several reports of trees down between Martensdale and Indianola. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Martensdale | $10,000 | Estimated winds by the public of 70 MPH. |
| May 2013 | Hail | Martensdale | $10,000 | Winds of 50 to 60 MPH also occurred. |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Martensdale | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Tornado (F1) | Martensdale | $5,000 | Intermittent track |
| May 2001 | Hail | Martensdale | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 2001 | Hail | Martensdale | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Martensdale | $3,000 | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Tornado (EF1) | Martensdale | $1,000 | This tornado formed north of Martensdale and quickly tracked to the SE, reaching its widest and strongest point just east of the city where it damaged dozens of trees. The surface circulation weakened as it ascended a 100 foot high ridge south of the Middle River and then dissipated about a half mile south of the ridge crest. |
| May 1997 | Hail | Martensdale | $1,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Tornado (F0) | Martensdale | - | Tornado touched down briefly in a farm field along side of Interstate 35 at mile post 53. |
| March 2011 | Funnel Cloud | Martensdale | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Martensdale | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Churchville | 1.8 miles | 9 | |
| Conger | 1.9 miles | 9 | |
| Wick | 2.0 miles | 11 | |
| Prole | 2.5 miles | 11 | |
| West Saint Marys | 4.5 miles | 11 | |
| Saint Marys | 4.5 miles | 11 | |
| Spring Hill | 5.5 miles | 11 | |
| Greenbush | 5.5 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 Martensdale | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1928499 | 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 458826. 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.






