Blaine County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Blaine County: 0.
2. Weak tornadoes were under-recorded before Doppler radar coverage became national in the early 1990s, so earlier decades read low. Ratings use the Fujita scale before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after.

Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, 1950 to 2025.

Every large fire

1. Large fires mapped by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program since 1984: 1,000 acres or more in the West, 500 or more in the East. Prescribed burns are excluded. Acres here are the part of each perimeter inside this place.

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), 1984 to 2026.

Smoke overhead

1. A smoke day is a date on which a smoke plume traced by NOAA Hazard Mapping System analysts from satellite imagery covered this place's point (the county's population centre or the city centre). Counts here are of medium or heavy smoke. Since 2018 analysts have often drawn light smoke as one area over most of the continent, so light-smoke counts are not comparable from year to year. The plumes show smoke anywhere in the air above, not air quality at the ground, and smoke hidden by cloud is missed.

NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, 2011 to 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.

OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026. NOAA Storm Events through 2026.

River crests

River gauges

1. Crests are the highest and the recent crests the National Weather Service lists for each river gauge in the county that has a flood stage, not every flood. Flood categories use each gauge's current flood stages; crests from before levees, dams or channel changes may not be comparable. Crests measured on an old datum are left out of the rankings.

NOAA National Water Prediction Service gauge records, retrieved October 30, 2026.

1. The Palmer Drought Severity Index is computed by NOAA each month from the county's average temperature and precipitation, relative to the county's own climate. Zero is normal; -3 or lower is severe drought and -4 or lower extreme drought. It describes the long-term balance of moisture, not water supply or crop losses.

NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, 1895 to September 2026, issued October 6, 2026.

Every earthquake of magnitude 4 or more within 50 miles

1. Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Catalog since 1900. Within 50 miles means the epicentre lies within 50 miles of the county boundary (or inside the county).
2. Small earthquakes were under-recorded before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s and are still missed in remote areas, so early decades read low. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them and mix scales (moment, local and body-wave).

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, 1900 to present, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jul 1, 2012Drought, Blaine$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe drought conditions (D2), which began the month of June, intensified to extreme drought conditions (D3) by the end of the month. Pastures that make up close to 89 percent of the land use in Blaine County (2007 Census USDA) was rated 69% poor or very poor. The lack of rain limited grazing capacity and created increased sales of livestock as the departure from normal precipitation reached over an inch in the east and northern portions of the county. On July 23rd all counties in Nebraska were approved for CRP Emergency Haying and Grazing. The drought continued into August.

2. Jul 5, 2000Thunderstorm Wind$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Extensive wind damage in and around Brewster with trees down, power lines down, and outbuildings damaged. Sheriff estimated wind gusts up to 100 mph.

3. Jun 12, 2010Flood$130,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms with prolonged heavy rain falling on already saturated ground caused widespread flooding. Three to five inches of rain caused damage to numerous secondary roads as they were under water or washed away.

4. Jun 10, 2010Thunderstorm Wind$40,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Brewster Sheriff reported roofs blown off out buildings and 6 to 8 inch diameter tree limbs and tops broken out of trees.

5. Jul 16, 2024Thunderstorm Wind$40,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Emergency management reports a cattle truck blown over on highway 91 along with a transformer pole broke off. Time estimated from radar.

6. Jul 22, 2000Hail$30,000
7. Aug 11, 2002Hail$30,000
8. Aug 27, 2017Hail$25,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Baseball sized hail punched holes in a roof and siding, dented a camper, and broke numerous windows out on a house at this location.

9. May 5, 2007Tornado$20,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado moved into Blaine County from Custer County approximately 7 miles southeast of Dunning and continued to move northward across the county and then crossed into Brown County approximately 11 miles northwest of Brewster. Along the path, the tornado snapped trees, broke power poles, destroyed fences, lifted and turned a vehicle driving along Highway 2, and destroyed windmills. The average path width of the tornado was 220 yards. The total path length of the tornado was approximately 55 miles.

10. Jul 2, 2001Hail$15,000

1. Storm Events records before 1996 cover only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail. Damage figures are as reported by the National Weather Service at the time, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 1950 to 2026, issued October 26, 2026.

All-time high

114°FJul 24, 1940

All-time low

−40°FFeb 14, 2021

Warmest night

80°FJul 24, 1940

Coldest day

−11°F2 times, most recently Feb 8, 1936

Wettest day

7.00 inMar 14, 2021

Snowiest day

19.0 inJan 4, 1949

Hottest year

1934mean 52.9°F

Coldest year

1951mean 45.9°F

Wettest year

202144.27 in

Driest year

195510.72 in

Snowiest season

66.5 in2017-18

Station Purdum (USC00256970), 2,690 ft elevation, 16.3 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1902 to August 31, 2026; 88.7% of days in the last 30 years are complete. Records at a single station can differ from a city’s official threaded record, which may combine several stations.

NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily.

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, retrieved October 30, 2026. Statewide declarations are not listed.

Neighbouring counties

• Tornadoes NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, through 2025.
• Tropical cyclones NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 (Atlantic; Northeast and Central Pacific), through 2025.
• Wildfire USGS/USFS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, through 2026.
• Storm events NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, through 2026.
• Flood insurance OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026.
• Declarations OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Weather records NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily, station USC00256970.
• River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Drought NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, through September 2026.
• Smoke NOAA NESDIS Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Earthquakes USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), retrieved October 30, 2026.

Joins, thresholds and known limits are set out in the methodology. Found an error? Report it. Page built October 30, 2026.