Phelps County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

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. Dec 29, 2006Ice Storm, Phelps$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A wide variety of significant winter weather began impacting portions of south central Nebraska during the day on Friday (12/29) and continued through Saturday night (12/30), before exiting the area on Sunday (12/31). Freezing rain, sleet, and snow began Friday afternoon in portions of Dawson county, with snowfall amounts as high as 9 inches. By Friday night most of the precipitation had turned to sleet and freezing rain, pressing further east to around highway 281. This led to significant ice accumulations which continued through Saturday night. The areas just west of Grand Island and Hastings received significant ice accrual from the storm, with up to an inch of ice reported…

2. May 3, 2024Hail$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hail ranging in size from quarters to two inches in diameter was reported across Holdrege.

3. Dec 25, 2016High Wind, Phelps$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The highest wind gust of 61 mph was measured at 5:55 p.m. by the Holdrege airport AWOS. Other gusts that occurred between 5-6 p.m. included 59 mph measured 8 miles north of Funk and 56 mph measured 6 miles north-northwest of Holdrege and in Loomis. Strong sustained winds around 40 MPH or higher continued for a few hours across the area.

4. Jun 7, 2024Thunderstorm Wind$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Wind gusts estimated to be near 85 MPH resulted in a swath of damage running from approximately 5-6 miles north of Funk to approximately 3-4 miles south-southeast of Funk. Emergency management reported numerous flipped irrigation pivots and several damaged or snapped power poles along this path. The only building damaged noted was an old barn which was destroyed north of Funk.

5. Jun 30, 2018Hail$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Satellite imagery reveals a swath of golf ball size to isolated baseball size hail that stretched from extreme southeastern Gosper County to central Phelps County on the afternoon of June 30th. The path was about 2 to 3 miles wide. Within this swath, law enforcement reported baseball size hail 3 miles southeast of Loomis at 3:12 p.m. CST.

6. Jul 1, 2024Thunderstorm Wind$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Peak wind gusts were estimated to be around 70 MPH, with measured gusts of 66 MPH from a mesonet station located three miles south-southwest of Holdrege and 60 MPH from the Holdrege Airport AWOS. The strongest winds were south-southwest of Holdrege, where a number of irrigation pivots were flipped, a flag pole was bent at a home, and minor tree damage was noted.

7. May 11, 2005Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Though well predicted, the severe weather and flooding on the night of May 11 was even worse than imagined. Thunderstorms ravaged a large part of south central Nebraska with hail, high winds, a tornado and catastrophic flooding.During evening and early morning hours, 4 to 12 inches of fell from Dawson County east to York County. At Kenesaw and Wood River, over 11 inches of rain was measured. The city of Grand Island set a rainfall record for a single event with 7.21 inches of rain. Statically, this event was a 100 year rain and flood event for the area. In Wood River, 12 people were evacuated due to rising water. It was estimated every structure in Wood River sustained some sort…

8. May 21, 1998Hail$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Two clusters of strong to severe thunderstorms erupted across south-central Nebraska in the evening and early morning hours. The first dumped hail as large as soft balls on Holdrege and the surrounding area. Dozens of cars and trucks were damaged or totaled by the large hail. A fertilizer operation southwest of town sustained major damage to a storage bin as the hail went through the steel roof. Roofs and siding was damaged along with windows broken and blown in. The first round of thunderstorms also spawned two brief tornado touchdowns to the west of Minden. Both were reported by trained spotters in the area. Large hail north of Arapahoe severely damaged the wheat crop in the…

9. Jun 20, 2011Tornado$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado touched down in northern Phelps County, approximately 6 miles south-southwest of Elm Creek, and moved north into southern Buffalo County, dissipating just south of Elm Creek. This tornado lifted and touched back down several times along its path, with the main damage coming from overturned irrigation pivots. The maximum wind speed of this tornado was estimated to be 80 MPH.

10. May 3, 2024Tornado$500,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    This tornado developed very close to, or over, the fairgrounds area, then moved north. The most concentrated area of damage occurred between 4th Street and 6th Avenue, between Sherman Street and Lincoln Street, which included snapped wooden poles, an overturned pivot, and varying degrees of damage to manufactured homes. It appears the tornado briefly lifted as it moved north of 6th Avenue, sparing neighborhoods in northeast Holdrege more significant damage, before touching back down in a field just northwest of the intersection of 18th Avenue and Lincoln Street. The tornado reached peak intensity and width near Lincoln Street and 25th Avenue just northeast of Holdrege where…

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°FJul 24, 1936

All-time low

−29°FDec 23, 1989

Warmest night

82°F2 times, most recently Jun 30, 1901

Coldest day

−8°FJan 14, 2024

Wettest day

5.27 inJul 9, 2019

Snowiest day

22.0 inMar 29, 1901

Hottest year

1934mean 56.3°F

Coldest year

1993mean 47.2°F

Wettest year

199346.39 in

Driest year

193612.67 in

Snowiest season

77.2 in1983-84

Station Holdrege (USC00253910), 2,320 ft elevation, 1.6 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1897 to October 27, 2026; 98.1% 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 USC00253910.
• 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.