Lincoln County

Every recorded tornado

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

Claims by ZIP code

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. Apr 14, 2012Hail$30.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Tennis ball size hail fell on the west side of North Platte, with a few pieces that large also falling on the east side of the city. Golf ball size hail also fell across much of the city and lasted until 6:50 p.m. CDT. In some parts of the city large hail fell off and on for almost two hours.

2. Jul 1, 2012Drought, Lincoln$20.0 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 66 percent of the land use in Lincoln County (2007 Census USDA) that was rated 69% poor or very poor. The lack of rain limited grazing capacity 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.

3. Jul 20, 2003Hail$7.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Ping-pong ball to baseball size hail struck the east side of town. Hail damaged the bodies of nearly every vehicle and broke some windshields at an auto dealership and in residential areas on the east side of North Platte. Then the storm moved into the southeast section of town and continued to do damage to vehicles at retail shopping center parking lots. The hail also damaged 8 skylights in the Wal-Mart Super Center store. One middle aged woman was struck in the head by a hailstone in the Wal-Mart parking lot. She was taken to the hospital for stitches. Then the storm severely damaged nearly every vehicle at 2 more auto dealerships as it moved south of Interstate 80.

4. May 30, 2012Hail$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Considerable damage done to a new convertible from the hail.

5. Mar 12, 2026Wildfire, Lincoln$4.7 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Fire initiated during the late afternoon hours of March 12th. Aided by strong west-northwest winds, the fire pushed quickly to the southeast. By the time the fire was contained on March 27th, a total of 106,194 acres was consumed in Lincoln County. The fire led to approximately, 300 persons being evacuated around Jeffrey Lake on March 12th. One injury occurred as a result of the fire. Three fire vehicles were destroyed in the fire.

6. Apr 14, 2012Hail$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A strong low pressure system produced widespread severe weather across the central plains on April 14th. Storms developed over central Nebraska in the late morning hours which produced large hail over portions of Garfield and Wheeler counties. Around the middle of the afternoon, more storms developed over southwest Nebraska in the vicinity of a dry line and warm front as a surface low was placed over Keith and Perkins counties. These storms produced very large hail, several tornadoes, numerous funnel clouds, and heavy rain. The heaviest hit areas were across Lincoln, Logan, and Custer counties as storms continued to develop and move over these areas before finally moving east into…

7. Apr 14, 2012Hail$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Golf ball size hail fell just south of the city of North Platte, at the junction of U.S. Highway 83 and Dodge Hill Road.

8. Jun 25, 1997Hail$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Scattered thunderstorms with large hail and winds in excess of 60 mph destroyed crops and property in a path across Southwest Nebraska.

9. Feb 26, 2024Wildfire, Lincoln$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A fire started along Betty Way Road north of North Platte at approximately 1030 AM CT on February 26th. Aided by 40+ MPH westerly winds, the fire raced 26 miles east into western portions of Custer County. By the time the fire was completely contained on September 29th, over 71000 acres of rangeland had burned. A farmstead north of Maxwell was completely destroyed by the fire. In addition the farmstead, approximately a half a dozen outbuildings were destroyed along with numerous wind breaks and fencing.

10. Jun 25, 1997Hail$1.5 million
    National Weather Service narrative

    Thunderstorms with large hail and 60 mph winds damaged crops and property in a path across Southwest Nebraska.

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

112°FJul 11, 1954

All-time low

−34°F2 times, most recently Dec 22, 1989

Warmest night

78°FJun 19, 2022

Coldest day

−9°FDec 21, 1983

Wettest day

3.76 inAug 11, 1950

Snowiest day

15.3 inMar 7, 2024

Hottest year

2024mean 52.3°F

Coldest year

1978mean 45.2°F

Wettest year

195133.44 in

Driest year

201210.04 in

Snowiest season

66.3 in1979-80

Station N Platte Regional Airport (USW00024023), 2,762 ft elevation, 6.3 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1948 to October 25, 2026; 100.0% 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 USW00024023.
• 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.