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Truesdale, Iowa

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Washington Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50588. The Survey maps it on the Storm Lake quadrangle. 69 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,368 feet above sea level.

Truesdale within Buena Vista County

Population over time

2 figures

Truesdale fell from 81 to 69 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
201081
202069-12 (-15%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 9 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

2 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Truesdale between 2009 and 2018, burning about 49 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
Debris and open burning1

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
7 April 2018Debris and open burning4.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
11 April 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined45 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Buena Vista County

Mines and quarries near this place

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Truesdale: 3 past producers, 1 producer. 1 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
Maudlin Const CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Buena Vista County

Storms near this place

21 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Truesdale in 21 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 10 thunderstorm wind, 10 hail, 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
March 2025Thunderstorm WindTruesdale-A 61 mph thunderstorm wind gust was measured by a personal weather station.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindTruesdale-A 58 mph thunderstorm wind gust was measured by the Iowa Department of Transportation mesonet site near Truesdale.
May 2024Thunderstorm WindTruesdale-Several power poles were leaning due to thunderstorm winds.
May 2024Tornado (EF1)Truesdale-A tornado spun up just south of IA Highway 3 and west of 70th Avenue. The tornado tracked north-northeast for around 0.2 mile before removing roof panels from an outbuilding and tearing several limbs off a large tree. The tornado crossed Highway 3 where it snapped the tops from several hardwood trees. The tornado tracked for another half mile across open fields before impacting a farmstead where it removed the roof from an older residence and mangled several trees. The attached garage was shifted 6 to 10 inches off its foundation. The tornado then took a slightly more northeastward track over the next half mile, crossed 520th Street to another farm where it blew doors out of a garage, damaged empty grain bins and broke numerous tree limbs. The tornado lifted after another 0.3 mile across an open field. The estimated peak wind was 110 mph and the average path width was 50 yards.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindTruesdale-A power pole along 80th Avenue just south of Iowa Highway 3 was leaning, nearby corn was flattened, and large tree branches were broken due to thunderstorm winds.
June 2023HailTruesdale-Quarter size hail resulted in approximately 200 strikes to a deputy squad car. Hail also damaged a nearby deputy's house.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindTruesdale-Thunderstorm wind gusts as high as 66 mph were measured by Iowa Road Weather Information System site RSLI4 2 miles northeast of Truesdale.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindTruesdale-Crop damage was done by strong winds.
June 2023HailTruesdale-Half-dollar size hail was accompanied by some strong winds.
June 2009Thunderstorm WindTruesdale-Thunderstorm winds blew down 4 inch diameter branches, and blew down a few small trees.
April 2025Thunderstorm WindTruesdale-no account filed
May 2018HailTruesdale-no account filed
June 2012HailTruesdale-no account filed
June 2012HailTruesdale-no account filed
June 2012HailTruesdale-no account filed
April 2011HailTruesdale-no account filed
May 2008Thunderstorm WindTruesdale-no account filed
May 2007HailTruesdale-no account filed
May 2006HailTruesdale-no account filed
June 2004HailTruesdale-no account filed
July 1997Thunderstorm WindTruesdale-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Buena Vista 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
Storm Lake6.2 miles9
Rembrandt6.7 miles9
Alta6.9 miles10
Lakeside7.5 miles9
Casino Beach7.6 miles9
Sulphur Springs8.7 miles9
Juniata10.4 miles9
Elkton10.9 miles9

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 TruesdaleAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2239886The 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 462348. 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.