Kelso, Missouri
21 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1934 and the latest in 1993. It stands in Kelso Township. It lies in ZIP code area 63758. It stands on Illmo Branch. The Survey maps it on the Scott City quadrangle. 554 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 436 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresKelso fell from 586 to 554 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 | 586 | |
| 2020 | 554 | -32 (-5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 21 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.
- 1934 USGS Morley quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1939 USGS Morley quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1949 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1950 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1963 USGS Morley quadrangle1:62500
- 1963 USGS Scott City quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1964 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS Cape Girardeau quadrangle1:100000
- 1986 USGS Cape Girardeau quadrangle1:100000
- 1987 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000
- 1993 USGS Scott City quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
5 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Kelso between 1992 and 2018, burning about 32 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 | 4 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 April 1992 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Missouri Department of Conservation | not named |
| 18 April 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Missouri Department of Conservation | 176677-10082-04182018-1049 |
| 12 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1.3 acres | Missouri Department of Conservation | 176676-10082-04122018-0119 |
| 1 April 2015 | Debris and open burning | 25 acres | Missouri Department of Conservation | 121513-10082-04012015-1324 |
| 9 February 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Missouri Department of Conservation | 176674-10082-02092018-1240 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 25 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 25 workings within 5 miles of Kelso: 23 past producers, 1 unknown, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aba Pit | Clay | Past Producer | ||
| Marquette Clay Pit | Clay | Producer | ||
| Unk | Clay | Past Producer | ||
| Benton Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
5 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Kelso in 5 storm reports between 2001 and 2025: 3 hail, 1 flash 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2015 | Tornado (EF1) | Kelso | $60,000 | Numerous trees were uprooted or snapped off. Several outbuildings were destroyed, including a large shed. Three camper trailers were overturned. One of the campers sustained major damage. There was shingle and siding damage to a few homes. There was clearly a well-defined convergent path through a corn field. Peak winds were estimated near 95 mph. The path continued across the Mississippi River into Alexander County, Illinois. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Kelso | - | Golf ball size hail was measured in Kelso on the north end of an eastward propagating supercell. |
| May 2003 | Hail | Kelso | - | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Hail | Kelso | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Flash Flood | Kelso | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scott City | 2.2 miles | 21 | |
| Illmo | 2.9 miles | 21 | |
| Hilltop | 3.6 miles | 21 | |
| Kagel | 4.6 miles | 20 | |
| Rockview | 4.8 miles | 20 | |
| New Hamburg | 5.0 miles | 21 | |
| Zewapeta | 5.0 miles | 22 | |
| Kenton (historical) | 5.4 miles | 20 |
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 Kelso | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1738363 | 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 720525. 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.












