Garden County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jul 1, 2012Drought, Garden$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 81 percent of the land use in Garden 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 below 3 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. May 23, 2018Thunderstorm Wind$3.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flat roof was rolled back halfway on a commercial building.

3. Mar 12, 2026Wildfire, Garden$2.7 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Fire initiated during the early afternoon hours of March 12th east of Angora in Morrill County. Aided by 50 MPH west-northwest winds, the fire entered Garden County. By the time the fire was contained on March 28th, approximately 496,565 acres of rangeland was consumed in the fire. A total of 10 outbuildings and 1 primary residence was destroyed. Livestock losses were estimated at 200 sheep, 10 calves and 200 cattle lost in Garden County.

4. Apr 27, 2025Tornado$750,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Tornado touched down approximately 3 miles southwest of Bingham in far northern Garden County. This tornado quickly increased in size as it moved northeast, impacting utility poles and trees along Highway 2. Just to the east, the tornado impacted a farmstead and overturned a freight train, producing EF2 damage. The tornado continued to move slowly northeast for the next hour, primarily impacting open country in rural southwest Cherry County. The tornado ended shortly after 6 PM MST, 11 miles north-northeast of Ashby Nebraska.

5. Jun 21, 1998Flash Flood$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flash flooding along and south of the North Platte river from near Lisco to near Lewellen washed out several county roads with many county roads closed.

6. Jul 4, 2006Thunderstorm Wind$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A violent downburst broke off large trees...one which fell on the roof of a small motel. The downburst also caused a pole barn to be destroyed, removed a roof from a machine shed, overturned two pivot irrigation systems, and stripped numerous corn fields on the northeast side of Oshkosh.

7. Aug 10, 2005Thunderstorm Wind$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorm outflow winds of 50 MPH caused the derailment of 40 empty coal train cars.

8. Jun 20, 2003Tornado$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado touched down near the North Platte River and destroyed an old barn and snapped off trees before moving north across Highway 26 and taking down power poles. After moving across the highway, it destroyed three outbuildings, three grain bins, a large machine shed, and a two car detached garage and broke off numerous large trees at a farmstead. It continued to move north-northeast and destroyed three wind mills and three center pivot irrigation systems and threw 1/2 ton hay bales one quarter mile into a corn field.

9. Jul 17, 2009Hail$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The hail and wind gusts of 30 to 40 mph damaged roofs on homes, broke skylights in homes, and damaged vehicles.

10. Jun 21, 1998Hail$100,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Extensive damage to vehicles. Windows broken in homes.

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°FJul 11, 1954

All-time low

−47°FDec 22, 1989

Warmest night

85°F2 times, most recently Jul 15, 1934

Coldest day

−17°FDec 22, 1989

Wettest day

5.13 inAug 14, 1968

Snowiest day

17.0 inJan 19, 2023

Hottest year

1934mean 53.6°F

Coldest year

1993mean 46.3°F

Wettest year

192328.27 in

Driest year

20126.44 in

Snowiest season

72.0 in2022-23

Station Oshkosh (USC00256385), 3,390 ft elevation, 2.3 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1913 to August 31, 2026; 97.3% 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 USC00256385.
• 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.