Hayes County

Every recorded tornado

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

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 (1).

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. Aug 28, 1999Flash Flood$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms produced very heavy rainfall amounts of 10 to 14 inches in Hayes County, causing numerous washed out roads and culverts.

2. May 18, 2025Tornado$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Tornado touched down in pastureland destroying a windmill and numerous trees. The tornado then tracked to the north northeast over the next 34 minutes destroying outbuildings at a farmstead and feed lot and overturning several center pivot irrigation systems. Numerous power poles were also snapped by the tornado before dissipating south of Dickens Nebraska.

3. Jun 4, 2008Hail$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A supercell storm moved through the area and dropped softball size hail. The hail severely damaged vehicles building roofs, broke windows, tore holes in the metal siding on homes, tore through the roof of a motel and through the roof of the newspaper building, The Times-Republican.

4. Jul 1, 2012Drought, Hayes$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 53 percent of the land use in Hayes County (2007 Census USDA) was rated 53% 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 2 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.

5. Aug 28, 1997Hail$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong thunderstorm winds and hail broke tree limbs and caused severe crop damage in the Hayes Center area.

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

   Thunderstorms produced very heavy rainfall of 2 to 9 inches across Hayes County. The heaviest rainfall occurred northeast of Hayes Center where unconfirmed reports of 16 inches of rain fell in 2 days. Old Highway 17 west of Hayes Center was washed out. A bridge was washed out 4 miles south of Camp Hayes Lake. Numerous secondary roads were severely damaged due to water over the road.

7. Apr 20, 2001Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
8. Aug 9, 2008Flash Flood$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Up to 8 inches of rain fell across southeast Hayes County causing widespread flooding - especially along the tributaries of Blackwood Creek and Red Willow Creek. Several roads were completely washed out while others were impassable.

9. May 29, 2007Flash Flood$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms produced very heavy rainfall of 2 to 4 inches across Hayes County. Additional heavy rainfall on already saturated ground caused water to wash out secondary roads north of Palisade and southwest of Hayes Center. Water was over Highway 25 and 25A in several locations south and southwest of Hayes Center.

10. Oct 31, 2000Tornado$160,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A tornado touched down 1 mile west of Hamlet and was intermittently on the ground to 9 miles north of Hamlet. As the tornado moved into Stinking Water Creek bottom 4 miles north northwest of Hamlet a garage was destroyed and several farm outbuilding were damaged. Large cottonwood and evergreen trees were uprooted or snapped off. The tornado then struck a farm 9 miles north of Hamlet destroying a calf shed and doing extensive tree damage before lifting.

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, 1.7 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.
• 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.