Rock County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Rock 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, Rock$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 74 percent of the land use in Rock 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 2 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. Jun 5, 1999Tornado$750,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Storm chasers and Law Enforcement observed a tornado that destroyed two center pivot irrigation systems,power poles, and a large grain bin facility.

3. Jul 16, 2001Flash Flood$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms which slowed and began back building across parts of Northern Rock county resulted in flash flooding. Culverts and bridges were washed out as storms began to train with torrential rainfall over a 3.5 hour period. Rainfall up to 8 inches was indicated on the KLNX WSR-88D 3 hour precipitation graphic. The Department of Roads reported a close 7.7 inches of rainfall as of 1630 pm CST. The excessive rains resulted in increased runoff with over 2 feet of water flowing over roadways 7 miles north of Newport, on Highway 137, by 1608 PM CST and water over Highway 20, 8 miles west of Bassett, by 1720 pm CST as thunderstorms redeveloped to the west.

4. Jun 3, 2014Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Wind damage reported from 7 miles north of Bassett to just east southeast of Newport. Damage included grain bins destroyed, irrigation center pivots overturned and downed power lines.

5. Jun 3, 2014Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An intermittent line of wind damage was observed along and north of Highway 20 in Rock County. The wind damage began about 5 miles northeast of Bassett and continued into Holt County to 5 miles northeast of Newport. Peak wind gusts of 118 mph were estimated, where wooden power poles were snapped 3.5 miles east of Newport. Wind damage included uprooted trees, downed power lines, two outbuildings and a machine shop destroyed, and over 50 center pivot irrigation systems overturned.

6. Mar 13, 2019Flood$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Historical flooding occurred in north central Nebraska as rivers, creeks and other streams rose due to the combination of snow, rain, and rapid snow melt on top of frozen ground. The greatest flooding occurred along the Niobrara, Keya Paha, Elkhorn and Loup Rivers; Ponca, Long Pine, Victoria and Cedar creeks; and one fatality occurred from the failure of Spencer Dam that is located on the Niobrara River. In addition to the Spencer Dam failure, several privately owned dams failed. The failure of these private dams contributed to additional overland flooding and most likely exacerbated the flooding in localized areas that led to community evacuations. The combination of weather…

7. Jun 24, 2009Tornado$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A tornado touched down north of Newport and overturned 2 center pivot irrigation systems, moved a 5000 bushel gran bin approximately 75 yards, snapped a large electrical transmission line pole, snapped a smaller wooden power pole, broke off numerous tree limbs, damaged the roof of an outbuilding, and picked up and spun around an empty grain truck traveling on Highway 20. The truck was heading west and was picked up and deposited in the south ditch. A storm chaser on Highway 20 also witnessed the tornado.

8. Jun 12, 2010Flood$120,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms with prolonged heavy rain caused widespread flooding across southeastern Rock County. Highway 20 near Newport and Highway 183 south of Bassett were under water. Numerous rural roads were severely damaged from flooding.

9. May 30, 2011Hail$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Fire Chief reported large hail fell for 20 minutes in Sybrant. The large hail broke out several vehicle windows and four homes had windows and siding broken or damaged.

10. Jun 3, 2014Hail$100,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Severe thunderstorms developed on June 3rd, during the early morning hours in north central Nebraska, and produced some large hail. During the late morning and early afternoon hours, severe thunderstorms developed and moved into eastern portion of north central Nebraska. Significant wind damage occurred in portions of Rock and western Holt County destroying some grain bins, overturning center pivots and causing downed power lines. Thunderstorms re-intensified by mid afternoon north of a warm front draped west to east across western and north central Nebraska. Numerous reports of large hail and damaging winds occurred, which lasted through mid evening.

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, 17.9 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.