Frontier County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Frontier 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. Apr 8, 2013Thunderstorm Wind$6.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A bow echo produced straight-line winds that were estimated up to 80 mph for nearly 30 minutes. The wind damage encompassed over 50 square miles in central and northeast Frontier County, in an area from east of Stockville and west of West Canyon Road to the south and west of Eustis. The high winds produced damage at 12 farmsteads. The most extensive damage just north of County Road 741, where two large metal buildings and nine 10 to 15 thousand bushel silos were destroyed. The wind damage included roofs of homes and outbuildings, windows blown out, over 60 center pivot irrigation systems overturned, large tree limbs down and livestock killed. The strong winds took down power lines…

2. Jun 25, 1997Hail$3.0 million
3. Jul 1, 2012Drought, Frontier$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 58 percent of the land use in Frontier 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 up 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.

4. Jun 29, 2000Hail$500,000
5. Jun 25, 1997Thunderstorm Wind$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Wind and hail broke windows throughout Curtis. A center pivot irrigation system was blown over 2 miles northeast of Curtis.

6. May 28, 2007Flash Flood$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms produced very heavy rainfall of 2 to 9 inches across Frontier County. The heaviest rainfall occurred across the western portion of the county. North Brushy Road was completely washed out with a 30 foot by 50 foot gully in the road. Numerous secondary roads were severely damaged due to water over the roads and bridges. Medicine Creek rose rapidly and produced significant damage at Arrowhead Golf Course in Curtis.

7. Oct 31, 2000Tornado$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado touched down 10 miles south southwest of Eustis damaging some trees. The tornado moved north northeast and was intermittently on the ground to 1 mile south of Eustis. Six miles south southwest of Eustis a farm received extensive damage with a barn destroyed and several outbuildings damaged along with damage to fences, machinery and corrals. This is the same farm that was struck two days earlier. Five miles south southwest of Eustis a farm was narrowly missed with damage to irrigation pipes and trees. The tornado then struck a farm 1 mile south of Eustis damaging several outbuildings.

8. Apr 20, 2007Tornado$240,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado formed 4 miles southeast of Moorefield and tracked north for 4 miles before exiting Frontier County about 3 miles east northeast of Moorefield at 825 PM CST. The tornado continued into Lincoln County for another 13 miles before dissipating at 846 PM CST. As it touched down in Frontier County, it immediately hit a farmstead and took off the roof and attached garage on the house, collapsed a grain bin and carried a horse trailer across the road about 50 yards. The tornado continued north through fields overturning 3 pivot irrigation systems and several power poles before destroying a metal building on another farmstead. The tornado continued north across Highway 23 and…

9. Aug 10, 1999Thunderstorm Wind$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Trees were blown down by thunderstorm winds in Moorefield. Also in and near Moorefield, a greenhouse was destroyed as a metal shed was picked up from its foundation, lifted over a van, and dropped onto the greenhouse. Wood from inside the shed was driven into the side of a wooden truck box. Lightning struck a cedar tree and killed a bull standing nearby. Irrigation pipe throughout the area was blown and tossed about.

10. May 23, 2008Flash Flood$150,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Slow moving and training thunderstorms produced very heavy rainfall with storm totals ranging from 7 to 8.14 inches. Law enforcement reported a large number of road closures due to water over county roads or roads being roads.

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 12, 1954

All-time low

−30°F2 times, most recently Dec 9, 1919

Warmest night

82°FJul 14, 1914

Coldest day

−8°F4 times, most recently Dec 22, 1990

Wettest day

5.28 inJul 20, 1973

Snowiest day

18.0 inMar 28, 1980

Hottest year

1934mean 56.8°F

Coldest year

2008mean 46.1°F

Wettest year

191544.83 in

Driest year

20029.81 in

Snowiest season

83.0 in1979-80

Station Hayes Center 1NW (USW00024020), 3,045 ft elevation, 33.9 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1905 to October 28, 2026; 97.7% 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 USW00024020.
• 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.