Chase County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

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.

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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jul 1, 2012Drought, Chase$10.0 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 43 percent of the land use in Chase 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. Aug 21, 1997Hail$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Large hail and damaging winds estimated at 100 mph broke windows and tree limbs and damaged crops in the area.

3. Aug 21, 1997Hail$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hail ranging in size from peas to tennis balls along with winds in excess of 60 mph damaged growing corn and personal property.

4. Jun 4, 2008Hail$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A supercell storm that produced several tornadoes also produced up to tennis ball size hail from Champion to approximately 3 miles south of Champion. The hail broke out hundreds of windows in homes and vehicles, tore holes in metal siding on homes, severely damaged roofs on buildings and vehicle bodies, and destroyed wheat and corn crops.

5. Jun 11, 2007Flash Flood$450,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Nearly stationary thunderstorms produced heavy rainfall of 4 to 10 inches causing water to flow over roadways. The flood waters over-topped the dam at Champion Lake. Water flowed across Highway 6 west of Imperial near Sand Creek and across numerous secondary roads. Highways were closed and travel was discouraged for much of the county. Many secondary roads were washed out.

6. Apr 20, 2001Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorm wind blew down power lines and damaged trees.

7. May 27, 2019Tornado$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado touched down 7 miles northwest of Imperial and moved northeast 10 miles before dissipating northeast of Imperial. The tornado was intermittently on the ground, where it overturned or destroyed several center pivot irrigation systems in its path. The tornado was rated an EF1.

8. Jun 16, 2008Thunderstorm Wind$120,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong outflow winds from thunderstorms broke off 18 power poles, overturned 10 center pivot irrigation systems, and snapped trees.

9. May 22, 1996Hail$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A severe thunderstorm dropping hail the size of golfballs and grapefruits moved across southwest Chase County, damaging homes, out buildings, farm equipment, pivot systems and crops.

10. Jun 4, 2008Hail$100,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A supercell storm that produced several tornadoes south and west of Champion also produced large hail at Imperial. The hail damaged several roofs of homes and numerous vehicle bodies.

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

111°F2 times, most recently Aug 2, 2008

All-time low

−27°FFeb 15, 2021

Warmest night

75°F2 times, most recently Jun 19, 2022

Coldest day

−5°F2 times, most recently Dec 22, 2022

Wettest day

5.06 inApr 19, 1971

Snowiest day

9.5 inJan 14, 1960

Hottest year

2012mean 54.2°F

Coldest year

1960mean 48.4°F

Wettest year

196527.37 in

Driest year

20028.77 in

Snowiest season

56.1 in1959-60

Station Imperial Municipal Airport (USW00024091), 3,269 ft elevation, 0.6 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1951 to October 25, 2026; 87.6% 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 USW00024091.
• 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.