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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.

Merrill within Plymouth County

Population over time

2 figures

Merrill 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.

YearPeople Change
2010755
2020717-38 (-5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 10 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

1 since 2006

Regional 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/undetermined1

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
26 June 2006Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Plymouth County

Mines and quarries near this place

5 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Anderson PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Howes PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Plymouth County

Storms near this place

23 since 1994

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 1994Thunderstorm WindMerrill$50,000no account filed
June 1994Tornado (F0)Merrill$500no account filed
April 2024Thunderstorm WindMerrill-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 2024Thunderstorm WindMerrill-Thunderstorm winds down several large tree branches in Merrill.
April 2023HailMerrill-Hail 1.0 inch in diameter fell in Merrill.
April 2011HailMerrill-Baseball size hail caused an unknown amount of damage to vehicles and roofs.
June 2011Flash FloodMerrill-Heavy rain from thunderstorms caused flash flooding of Perry Creek.
June 2010FloodMerrill-Heavy rain caused minor lowland flooding of Perry Creek. The flooding was near the headwaters and did not extend very far downstream.
June 2008FloodMerrill-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 2005Thunderstorm WindMerrill-Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several branches blown down.
May 2004HailMerrill-Large hail damaged roofs and vehicles. The amount of damage was not known.
August 2020HailMerrill-no account filed
April 2011HailMerrill-no account filed
May 2005HailMerrill-no account filed
September 2005HailMerrill-no account filed
September 2005HailMerrill-no account filed
May 2004HailMerrill-no account filed
May 2004HailMerrill-no account filed
May 2004HailMerrill-no account filed
May 2004HailMerrill-no account filed
June 2002Thunderstorm WindMerrill-no account filed
June 2001HailMerrill-no account filed
June 2001HailMerrill-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Plymouth 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
Plymouth (historical)2.3 miles10
West Le Mars5.2 miles10
Wren5.5 miles9
Parkview Terrace6.1 miles10
Neptune6.2 miles10
Brunsville6.3 miles9
Hinton6.7 miles9
Le Mars6.8 miles10

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 MerrillAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1928168The 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.