McPherson County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within McPherson 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, Mcpherson$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 93 percent of the land use in McPherson County (2007 Census USDA) 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.

2. Mar 18, 2012Tornado$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A tornado touched down approximately five miles south southeast of Ringgold in McPherson County and tracked north and northwest before dissipating near the Ringgold church. Tornado damage included several large tree limbs broken off, cedar trees uprooted, a center pivot irrigation system twisted and overturned, damage to a church building and small storage building. The tornado was on the ground intermittently for four minutes.

3. Jun 12, 2010Flood$75,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms with prolonged heavy rain falling on already saturated ground caused widespread flooding across eastern McPherson County. Three to five inches of rain fell, severely damaging rural roads.

4. Jun 17, 2018Tornado$60,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A rental house and a tree line were damaged by the tornado. The tornado continued to the northeast where it hit another homestead where windows were shattered and a door was blown in on a residence. A full irrigation pivot was also flipped at this location.

5. Jul 8, 2003Tornado$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   As the tornado touched down on the northwest side of town, it ripped off the porch on a house. As it moved east southeast to the center of town, it ripped off the roof of the McPherson County Courthouse which was thrown into the northwest corner of the roof of the elementary school damaging it. An attached garage was ripped off a house. A horse trailer was picked up and moved from one side of a building to the other side of a building. Finally on the east end of Tryon, the tornado destroyed a porch on a home. Numerous power poles were down and at least 14 large trees were snapped off or uprooted. A few large hailstones also accompanied the storm.

6. Apr 4, 2009Blizzard, Mcpherson$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Blizzard conditions began across McPherson County by 12 pm CST on April 4, 2009. Snowfall amounts ranged from 6 to 10 inches. Strong north winds of 30 to 50 mph caused significant blowing and drifting snow with reduced visibility to below a quarter mile during the afternoon and evening hours. Snow drifts of up to 3 feet were reported. Power outages were common and several newborn calves died during the storm.

7. Jun 15, 2006Hail$15,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hail broke out windows on the east and south sides of a house.

8. Jul 23, 2009Thunderstorm Wind$15,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Very strong winds moved 4 grain bins off their foundation by 6 to 8 inches, damaged trees, and broke off sprinkler heads from a center pivot irrigation system.

9. Jun 21, 2007Hail$12,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A surface front located across the Sandhills provided focus for outbreak of severe weather including numerous reports of tornadoes. Strong storms also dropped out of South Dakota and quickly turned tornadic. Additional storms moved out of Northeast Colorado and brought large hail to Southwest Nebraska.

10. Apr 19, 2006High Wind, Mcpherson$12,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    An intense low pressure system that caused blizzard conditions in western South Dakota brought high winds to western and north central Nebraska. The winds were sustained from 40 to 45 mph with most gusts around 60 mph. An automated weather observing system near Rushville in northwest Sheridan County reported a gust to 84 mph. The winds overturned a vacated mobile home in Rushville in northwest Sheridan County, uprooted and broke off trees, destroyed small sheds, downed power lines, peeled back roofing on a building at a lumberyard in Hyannis in Grant County, and removed shingles from numerous buildings. The intense winds spread southward through the morning hours and overturned a…

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, 35.0 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.