Hooker County

Every recorded tornado

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

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, Hooker$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 94 percent of the land use in Hooker 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. Jul 22, 1997Flash Flood$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flash flood waters washed out 2 miles of county road.

3. Jun 29, 2000Hail$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Significant damage to grassland in Hooker county and property in the Mullen area as a thunderstorm dropped hail covering the ground several inches deep in some areas.

4. Oct 24, 1997Winter Storm, Hooker$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A major winter storm moved across southwest and northcentral Nebraska dumping from 4 to 12 inches of snow. Sustained winds at 40 mph with gusts to near 60 mph created blowing and drifting snow. The storm began as rain and then changed over to snow as temperatures fell. Ice and snow collected on power lines and trees causing considerable damage to tree limbs and scattered power outages. Interstate 80 was closed to traffic along with other roads in the area due to blowing and drifting snow and icy conditions. However, there were still numerous traffic accidents due to slick roads and poor visibilities. Many school and community activities were cancelled or postponed.

5. Jul 23, 2009Hail$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The cooperative observer reported the tennis ball size hail.

6. Feb 25, 1998Winter Storm, Hooker$82,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An intense winter storm dumped up to eight inches of snow in the Northeast Nebraska Panhandle. Snow and blowing snow made travel almost impossible so that roads were closed and school was canceled. High winds in excess of 60 mph blew a metal utility building into cars in a nearby parking lot in Broken Bow. The winds flipped a metal building into a motel in Valentine. The destructive winds also lifted and tore off roof shingles, damaged a garage door and tore siding off of a country school south of North Platte.

7. Jul 13, 2007Hail$35,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A supercell storm dropped very large hail as it moved south along Highway 97 through the Dismal River area. The hail damaged roofs and vehicles.

8. Apr 4, 2009Blizzard, Hooker$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Blizzard conditions began across Hooker County by 11 am MST on April 4, 2009. Snowfall amounts ranged from 10 to 12 inches. Strong north winds of 30 to 50 mph caused significant blowing snow and drifting with reduced visibility to near zero during the afternoon and evening hours. Snow drifts up to 7 feet deep were reported. Newborn calves died during the storm.

9. Jun 6, 2005Hail$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Large hail broke windshields and heavily damaged vehicles.

10. Jul 13, 2007Hail$30,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A larger outbreak of severe weather occurred during afternoon and mid evening hours of July 13th. However many of the reports came from a pair of long-lived supercells which tracked from the Western Sandhills across Cherry county into areas south of interstate 80 by end of event. Large hail was the primary threat with numerous reports of quarter to golf ball size hail received. However two areas received hail at or bigger than baseball size. An isolated tornado was confirmed across Southwest Lincoln county where a brief touchdown caused no injuries or damage.

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.

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.
• 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.