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Otho, Iowa

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1923 and the latest in 1993. It stands in Otho Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50569. The Survey maps it on the Fort Dodge South quadrangle. 429 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,122 feet above sea level.

Otho within Webster County

Population over time

2 figures

Otho fell from 542 to 429 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
2010542
2020429-113 (-21%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 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

15 since 2013

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 15 fires within 5 miles of Otho between 2013 and 2020, burning about 182 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 were 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
Smoking6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Arson/incendiarism3
Debris and open burning1
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
30 August 2013Smoking1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
14 August 2020Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
18 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
3 May 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
27 April 2015Smokingunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
24 April 2015Smoking2.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
18 April 2014Arson/incendiarism10 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
1 April 2015Smoking45 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Webster County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 34 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 34 workings within 5 miles of Otho: 22 past producers, 11 producers, 1 unknown. 11 still produce. What was taken out: Gypsum-Anhydrite, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Perlite, 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Lehigh Pit & PlantStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
UnknownFlagstonePast Producer
Fort Dodge PlantGypsum-Anhydrite, PerlitePast Producer
Johnston Clay WorksClayPast Producer
Kalo Brick and Tile Co.ClayPast Producer
National Gypsum PlantGypsum-Anhydrite, PerliteProducer
U S Gypsum PlantGypsum-Anhydrite, PerliteProducer
Vincent Clay Products Co.ClayPast Producer
Black PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Hoover PitsSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Webster County

Storms near this place

12 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Otho in 12 storm reports between 1999 and 2017: 4 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 2 heavy rain. 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
August 2009HailOtho$500,000Windows broken in houses.
June 2004Tornado (F0)Otho$100,000Tornado touched down south of Otho and caused extensive damage to two farmsteads.
August 2006Thunderstorm WindOtho$50,000no account filed
July 2011Thunderstorm WindOtho$10,000One foot diameter trees were downed.
June 2004HailOtho$10,000no account filed
June 2005Thunderstorm WindOtho$5,000no account filed
June 1999Tornado (F1)Otho$5,000no account filed
June 2005Thunderstorm WindOtho$3,000no account filed
May 2006HailOtho$1,000no account filed
June 2017HailOtho-Trained spotter reported nickel sized hail. This is a delayed report.
August 2015Heavy RainOtho-Public reported heavy rainfall of 7.00 inches. Beginning time radar estimated.
August 2015Heavy RainOtho-Public reported heavy rainfall of 4.25 for an event total thus far.

Every storm recorded in Webster 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
Kalo1.1 miles11
Roberts1.3 miles11
Coalville1.9 miles11
Shady Oak2.6 miles11
Cypsum City (historical)3.6 miles11
Lundgren4.1 miles12
Evanston4.9 miles11
West Fort Dodge (historical)5.1 miles11

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 OthoAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1927861The 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 459915. 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.