Sherman County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by NE Univ of NE Lincoln (3).

1. Landslides mapped in the USGS compilation of landslide inventories across the United States (version 3.0, 2025), rated probable or better. The compilation joins inventories made by federal and state agencies for different purposes and areas, so the number mapped in a county reflects how closely it has been surveyed as much as how often its slopes fail. An area with few records may simply not have been mapped. Deaths are as recorded in the inventories; a slide listed in two inventories is counted once.

USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0, retrieved October 27, 2026.

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jun 7, 2022Thunderstorm Wind$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Wind gusts were estimated to be near 70 MPH. These gusts were accompanied by hail as large as 3.5 inches in diameter. Several reports of shattered windows and damaged siding were received from this wind-driven hail. Vehicle damage was reported, including from the Emergency Manager who experienced that largest hail and strongest wind on Highway 10 east of Hazard.

2. Jun 7, 2022Hail$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hail reached as large as 3.5 inches in diameter. This hail was accompanied by wind gusts estimated to be near 70 MPH. Several reports of shattered windows and damaged siding were received from this wind-driven hail. Vehicle damage was reported, including from the Emergency Manager who experienced that largest hail and strongest wind on Highway 10 east of Hazard.

3. Jul 8, 2017Hail$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hail up to the size of baseballs fell across Loup City, lasting about 20 minutes.

4. Mar 13, 2019Flood$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Excessive rainfall, blizzard conditions, and high winds occurred on this Tuesday night, Wednesday and Thursday, and they were followed by extensive and significant flooding that lasted for days afterward. The seeds of the disastrous flooding were planted in the weeks leading up to this event. The factors that came together made this a worst case scenario. February through early March was bitterly cold and snowy due to a blocking ridge between Alaska and Hawaii and the downstream trough along the West Coast of the United States. The 32-day stretch from February 4th through March 7th was the third coldest on record, after 1936 and 1960. By itself, February was the coldest month in…

5. Jul 9, 2014Hail$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hail ranged in size from quarters to golf balls and was covering the ground in some locations.

6. Jun 7, 2022Hail$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   While nearly all of South Central Nebraska experienced thunderstorms on this Tuesday evening, the majority of severe storms (significantly severe in places) concentrated within two distinct, northwest-southeast swaths mainly no more than 10-20 miles across...both associated with discrete supercells (one of which eventually morphed into more of a quasi-linear convective system/QLCS). The primary/longest corridor of severe weather primarily impacted the the following local counties: southern/western Sherman, northern/eastern Buffalo, southern/western Hall, northern/eastern Adams (including Hastings), southern/western Clay and much of Nuckolls/Thayer. The other notable (but…

7. Mar 13, 2019Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Excessive rainfall, blizzard conditions, and high winds occurred on this Tuesday night, Wednesday and Thursday, and they were followed by extensive and significant flooding that lasted for days afterward. The seeds of the disastrous flooding were planted in the weeks leading up to this event. The factors that came together made this a worst case scenario. February through early March was bitterly cold and snowy due to a blocking ridge between Alaska and Hawaii and the downstream trough along the West Coast of the United States. The 32-day stretch from February 4th through March 7th was the third coldest on record, after 1936 and 1960. By itself, February was the coldest month in…

8. Dec 25, 2016High Wind, Sherman$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Wind gusts were estimated to be near 70 mph in Loup City. In Ashton, a large tree fell onto a house and punched a hole in the roof/attic. Strong sustained winds around 40 MPH or higher continued for a few hours across the area.

9. Jun 14, 2022Hail$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   For the second consecutive Tuesday evening, a relatively small percentage of the 24-county South Central Nebraska area was ravaged by significant severe thunderstorms that caused countless instances of damage including (but not limited to): broken windows/damaged siding, flipped irrigation pivots, destroyed crops by the thousands of acres, and more isolated occurrences of outright-demolished outbuildings/grain bins along with relatively minor structural damage to a few homes. Unlike the event a week prior on the 7th that featured a few separate swaths of severe weather, this one that played out mainly between 9:30 p.m. CDT on the 14th and 3:30 a.m. CDT on the 15th was highlighted…

10. May 30, 2024Flash Flood$500,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Radar estimates and local reports showed that between 2 and 5 inches of rain fell across the area, mostly in a period of two hours from approximately 7AM to 9AM. The highest amounts occurred in central and west-central portions of Howard County. Emergency management and law enforcement reported that water was covering parts of Highway 92 in the Farwell area as well as parts of Highway 11 in the Elba area. Water was running over rural roads, and numerous rural roads ended up being closed. Small creeks were flooded, with this water eventually making into and flooding the Turkey Creek, which runs north of Dannebrog and eventually into the Middle Loup River.

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

116°FJul 25, 1936

All-time low

−37°FFeb 12, 1899

Warmest night

83°FJul 25, 1936

Coldest day

−11°FFeb 11, 1899

Wettest day

7.18 inJun 24, 1968

Snowiest day

14.0 inJan 19, 2023

Hottest year

1963mean 56.4°F

Coldest year

2008mean 46.8°F

Wettest year

201943.73 in

Driest year

201212.13 in

Snowiest season

54.5 in1935-36

Station Ravenna (USC00257040), 2,046 ft elevation, 13.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1893 to October 27, 2026; 98.6% 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 USC00257040.
• 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.
• Landslides USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0 (2025).
• 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.