Boyd County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Boyd 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.

Claims by ZIP code

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 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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by NE Univ of NE Lincoln (56).

1. Landslides mapped in the USGS compilation of landslide inventories across the United States (version 3.0, 2025), rated probable or better. The compilation joins inventories made by federal and state agencies for different purposes and areas, so the number mapped in a county reflects how closely it has been surveyed as much as how often its slopes fail. An area with few records may simply not have been mapped. Deaths are as recorded in the inventories; a slide listed in two inventories is counted once.

USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0, retrieved October 27, 2026.

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jul 1, 2012Drought, Boyd$30.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe drought conditions (D2), which began in July intensified to extreme drought conditions (D3) by the end of the month. Pastures that make up close to 60 percent of the land use in Boyd 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 one to two inches. Crop producers began silage of dryland corn. On July 23rd all counties in Nebraska were approved for CRP Emergency Haying and Grazing. The drought continued into August.

2. Mar 14, 2019Flash Flood$12.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain on top of frozen ground, rivers and streams led to historical runoff on the Niobrara River downstream of the Norden river crossing. At 6:46 AM CDT Holt County Dispatch reported the failure of Spencer Dam. A series of ice jams that developed upstream broke loose that led to a wall of water, large blocks of ice and debris that moved downstream to destroy the dam structure with flood waters to destroy the south bridge abutment on U.S. Highway 281 and the campground, bar and home immediately downstream of the dam. The flood caused one fatality.

3. Mar 13, 2019Flood$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rainfall led to high flows on Ponca Creek that produced extensive flooding and evacuations in Lynch. Homes and business along Ponca Creek sustained four feet or more of flood water damage, while several privately own bridges along Ponca Creek were destroyed. The flood waters eroded streets along and south of Highway 12.

4. Mar 13, 2019Flood$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Highway 11 bridge across the Niobrara River about 5 miles south of Butte is closed due to flooding. An ice jam produced large ice blocks that remained at the time of NWS storm survey.

5. Mar 13, 2019Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   County road bridge 8 miles south of Naper along the Niobrara River reported destroyed by heavy rain and snow melt that led to ice jams that broke up and moved downstream.

6. Mar 13, 2019Flood$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The NDOR web site reported street flooding in Butte as well as along Highway 12 from 3 miles south of Butte.

7. Nov 28, 2005Blizzard, Boyd$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A very strong low pressure system moved out of Colorado the Sunday after Thanksgiving and intensified as it moved northeast across the Western and Northern Plains hampering travel on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. Very warm air wrapped up into the system ahead of the storm causing freezing rain to develop across portions of Boyd, Holt, Rock, Loup, Garfield, Wheeler, and northeast Custer Counties Sunday afternoon, November 27th, while snow fell across the remainder of the area. By Sunday night, the freezing rain switched over to snow as cold air plunged into western and north central Nebraska. Winds increased significantly Sunday night into Monday morning with zero…

8. Jul 22, 2010Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms training over the same areas produced six to nine inches of rainfall in northern Holt and central Boyd counties. Several roads were closed due to water flowing across the roads to include Highway 12 between Bristow and Lynch, while numerous roads were washed out 9 to 12 miles north of Stuart. Spencer Dam authorities announced that the dam had reached capacity resulting in high releases of water downstream of the dam.

9. Aug 11, 2008Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Up to 5 inches of rain fell with strong thunderstorms causing rapid runoff and significant damage to secondary roads and crops.

10. Jun 12, 2010Flood$75,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Thunderstorms with prolonged rain falling on already saturated ground caused widespread minor flooding along Ponca Creek in Boyd County. Power poles toppled due to errosion along the river bank. In addition, numerous rural roads were damaged due to the rain and flooding.

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

112°F2 times, most recently Jul 17, 1936

All-time low

−34°FFeb 2, 1905

Warmest night

83°FJul 18, 1936

Coldest day

−20°FDec 21, 1989

Wettest day

5.84 inSep 16, 1986

Snowiest day

18.0 in2 times, most recently Mar 31, 1949

Hottest year

1931mean 53.9°F

Coldest year

1996mean 44.3°F

Wettest year

201940.23 in

Driest year

195612.66 in

Snowiest season

104.5 in1983-84

Station O'neill (USC00256290), 1,990 ft elevation, 30.3 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1896 to October 27, 2026; 97.9% 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 USC00256290.
• 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.
• Landslides USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0 (2025).
• 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.