Cherry County

Every recorded tornado

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

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jul 1, 2012Drought, Eastern Cherry$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe drought conditions (D2), which began in the month of June, intensified to extreme drought conditions (D3) by the end of the month. Precipitation for July totaled 0.08 inches for Valentine, which was 2nd driest on record and represents a departure form normal precipitation of below 3 inches. Lightning ignited a range fire that consumed around 6,000 acres of range land from July 20th through the 30th. Pastures make up about 88 percent of farm use in Cherry County (2007 Census USDA), where conditions by the end of July were rated 69% poor or very poor. Range land provided limited grazing capacity. On July 23rd all counties in Nebraska were approved for CRP Emergency Haying and…

2. Apr 11, 2001Winter Storm, Cherry$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A powerful cyclone came out of southeast Colorado and through Kansas and eastern Nebraska. Wet snow of 4 to 8 inches accompanied by 40 to 50 mph wind and gusts to 60 mph took down numerous power poles and lines and damaged trees through a large part of north central, central, and southwest Nebraska. It also resulted in the closure of Interstate Highway 80 and many other highways for several hours.

3. Jul 16, 2006Wildfire, Eastern Cherry$1.5 million
4. Mar 12, 2026Wildfire, Western Cherry$988,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Fire started approximately 9 miles south of Kilgore during the afternoon hours of March12th. West winds initially pushed the fire east. By evening, a cold front shifted the winds to the north, forcing the fire south. By the time the fire was totally contained on the 23rd, a total of 17,229 acres of rangeland was consumed. One primary residence was consumed in the fire, along with one cabin and three outbuildings. Approximately 10 head of livestock were lost in the fire.

5. Jul 20, 2012Wildfire, Eastern Cherry$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning ignited a wildfire in northwest Brown County north of Johnstown, along the Fairfield Creek, a tributary of the Niobrara River. The fire's initial 7 mile wide reach was fanned by strong winds to spread the fire north and jumped the Niobrara River into southwest Keya Paha County. The wildfire was named the Fairfield Creek and later renamed the Region 24 Complex as two more fires developed in eastern Keya Paha County. The fires burned a total of 75,872 acres that destroyed rangeland and timbers within Brown County, 14 homes and 17 associated outbuilding in Keya Papa County, and additional range and crop lands in eastern Cherry County and southeast Keya Paha County. Four…

6. Jul 30, 2013Hail$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Media reported nearly 300 cars damaged at a car dealership on the west side of Valentine.

7. Jun 6, 2014Thunderstorm Wind$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Two hangars were destroyed and six airplanes sustained damage at the Valentine Airport.

8. Jun 12, 2010Flood$125,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms with prolonged heavy rain caused widespread flooding across southeast Cherry County. Several rural roads along Goose Creek were severely damaged from flooding.

9. Jul 25, 2001Tornado$115,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A tornado touched down 2 miles southeast of Merriman and moved southeast to 7 miles south of Eli before lifting. Trees were uprooted and windows were broken out of a house. Extensive damage was done to popcorn crops and alfalfa hay fields. Nine center pivot irrigation systems were destroyed. A stretch of power lines was snapped off along highway 20 and also along a road south of Eli as the tornado moved southeast.

10. Jul 22, 1997Hail$100,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Thunderstorm winds and hail broke windshields and blew large tree limbs down.

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 2, 1990

All-time low

−39°FDec 22, 1989

Warmest night

79°F2 times, most recently Jul 16, 2006

Coldest day

−15°F2 times, most recently Feb 3, 1989

Wettest day

3.87 inMay 22, 2016

Snowiest day

18.4 inSep 28, 1985

Hottest year

2021mean 52.1°F

Coldest year

1978mean 43.5°F

Wettest year

197732.68 in

Driest year

197410.57 in

Snowiest season

77.4 in1976-77

Station Valentine Miller Field Airport (USW00024032), 2,595 ft elevation, 11.2 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1948 to October 25, 2026; 100.0% 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 USW00024032.
• 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.