Keya Paha County

Every recorded tornado

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

Costliest events since 1996

1. Aug 5, 2021Thunderstorm Wind$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Wind gust were estimated at 80 mph by public. Reports of several trees uprooted. A camper was rolled and a grain bin was damaged. Estimated a half mile of power poles snapped, power lost.

2. Jul 1, 2012Drought, Keya Paha$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe drought conditions (D2) set in during the second week of July intensified to extreme drought conditions (D3) by the end of the month. A range fire ignited by lightning consumed around 44,000 acres of range land from July 20th through the 30th. Pasture conditions that makes up 73 percent of land use (2007 Census USDA) 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 Grazing. The drought continued into August.

3. Feb 19, 1997Flood, Keya Paha$750,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several days of temperatures above freezing caused snow to melt and ice to break up on Ponca Creek and Keya Paha River in northcentral Nebraska. The extra runoff from snowmelt combined with ice jams along the waterways caused flooding from Bristow east to the Boyd County line. In Keya Paha County flooding occurred near the community of Burton. Numerous homes and businesses incurred damage. County roads and bridges also sustained damage with Keya Paha County reporting $286,701 damage to its roads and bridges. Also, considerable soil erosion occurred to agricultural land.

4. May 5, 2007Flash Flood$120,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rains from thunderstorms caused flash flooding and washed out some bridges, roads, and culverts. Emergency management reported that 67 miles of roads were closed in the county.

5. May 22, 2010Tornado$120,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   At 930 PM CDT, a tornado touched down approximately 12 miles northwest of Springview and traveled northeast for 20 minutes before lifting 11 miles north of Springview. The tornado did extensive tree damage when it touched down, then moved northeast and struck two farmsteads. At the first farmstead, a loafing shed and stock trailer were destroyed, extensive tree and fence damage occurred, and a roof was torn off an old hog building. The most extensive damage occurred north of the farmstead where six rural electric association poles where broken. The tornado continued to move northeast and destroy a windmill. Then a second farmstead was hit with the tornado destroying a 40 by 60…

6. Jul 19, 1999Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous roads and culverts were washed out.

7. Jun 22, 1999Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A storm system moved through Springview causing major damage to buildings, power poles and numerous trees. Surface wind estimates were 100 mph. The wind at the top of wind turbines west of Springview were measured at 136 mph about 200 feet above the surface.

8. May 5, 2007Tornado$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The cyclic supercell produced a tornado just as it entered southern Keya Paha County approximately 7 miles south southeast of Springview. The tornado tracked north northeastward for around 17 miles before lifting 5 miles north northeast of Burton. Along the path, the tornado took part of a roof off two homes, snapped trees, destroyed a barn and small outbuildings, overturned a center pivot irrigation system, and snapped 40 power poles. The tornado caused minor injuries to a gentleman that was on a farm tractor.

9. Aug 3, 2007Thunderstorm Wind$80,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorm wind gusts overturned 2 center pivots, damaged a wind mill and some small sheds and uprooted several trees.

10. Mar 16, 2019Flood$50,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Flooding reported along the Niobrara River south of Norden.

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

113°F2 times, most recently Jul 20, 1934

All-time low

−33°FFeb 2, 1917

Warmest night

83°F3 times, most recently Jul 5, 1933

Coldest day

−15°FJan 13, 2024

Wettest day

4.95 inJul 1, 1962

Snowiest day

25.0 inNov 2, 1972

Hottest year

2012mean 54.0°F

Coldest year

1924mean 43.4°F

Wettest year

191545.48 in

Driest year

19899.50 in

Snowiest season

83.0 in1983-84

Station Ainsworth (USC00250050), 2,518 ft elevation, 23.3 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1905 to October 27, 2026; 98.7% 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 USC00250050.
• 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.