Merrill, Iowa
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Plymouth Township. It lies in ZIP code area 51038. It stands on West Branch Floyd River. The Survey maps it on the Union Center NW quadrangle. 717 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,175 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresMerrill fell from 755 to 717 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 | 755 | |
| 2020 | 717 | -38 (-5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 10 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.
- 1955 USGS Sioux City quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Sioux City quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Sioux City quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Union Center quadrangle1:62500
- 1985 USGS Union Center NW quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Sioux City North quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
1 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Merrill in 2006, burning about 5 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 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 June 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
5 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Merrill: 5 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anderson Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Howes Pit | 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
23 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Merrill in 23 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 14 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Merrill | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 1994 | Tornado (F0) | Merrill | $500 | no account filed |
| April 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Merrill | - | Thunderstorm winds blew a trailer into the ditch along Highway 75 around one-half mile south of Merrill. A photo showed the trailer was destroyed in the process. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Merrill | - | Thunderstorm winds down several large tree branches in Merrill. |
| April 2023 | Hail | Merrill | - | Hail 1.0 inch in diameter fell in Merrill. |
| April 2011 | Hail | Merrill | - | Baseball size hail caused an unknown amount of damage to vehicles and roofs. |
| June 2011 | Flash Flood | Merrill | - | Heavy rain from thunderstorms caused flash flooding of Perry Creek. |
| June 2010 | Flood | Merrill | - | Heavy rain caused minor lowland flooding of Perry Creek. The flooding was near the headwaters and did not extend very far downstream. |
| June 2008 | Flood | Merrill | - | Heavy rain caused minor flooding of Perry Creek at Merrill. The stage rose briefly to 9.51 feet, or 1.51 feet above flood stage. |
| September 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Merrill | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several branches blown down. |
| May 2004 | Hail | Merrill | - | Large hail damaged roofs and vehicles. The amount of damage was not known. |
| August 2020 | Hail | Merrill | - | no account filed |
| April 2011 | Hail | Merrill | - | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | Merrill | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Hail | Merrill | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Hail | Merrill | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Merrill | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Merrill | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Merrill | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Merrill | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Merrill | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Merrill | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Merrill | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plymouth (historical) | 2.3 miles | 10 | |
| West Le Mars | 5.2 miles | 10 | |
| Wren | 5.5 miles | 9 | |
| Parkview Terrace | 6.1 miles | 10 | |
| Neptune | 6.2 miles | 10 | |
| Brunsville | 6.3 miles | 9 | |
| Hinton | 6.7 miles | 9 | |
| Le Mars | 6.8 miles | 10 |
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 Merrill | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1928168 | 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 459005. 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.





