Thomas County

Every recorded tornado

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

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. Oct 2, 2022Wildfire, Thomas$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A fire initiated along a trail during the mid afternoon hours of October 2nd in north central portions of the Nebraska National Forest at Halsey. Aided by very strong southerly winds, the fire quickly spread to the north and north northwest consuming the Nebraska 4 H camp. At this camp, 18 buildings were destroyed including the main lodge. The fire then jumped the Middle Loup River and Nebraska highway 2 racing across several miles of open rangeland. One firefighter perished from a medical emergency while battling the fire. Approximately 200-250 different personnel battled this fire from the 2nd through the 11th. When the fire was fully extinguished, 19000 total acres had burned.

2. Jul 1, 2012Drought, Thomas$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. A forest fire, which started on June 30 in the southwestern portion of the Nebraska National Forest, consumed around 1,000 acres, and was contained on July 4th. Pastures that makes up 97 percent of land use (2007 Census USDA) was rated 69% poor or very poor by the end of the month. Range land is providing limited grazing capacity. The drought continued into August.

3. Jul 2, 1996Hail$50,000
4. Jun 4, 1999Tornado$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado, observed by numerous storm chasers, including the VORTEX team, and the general public, touched down in Thomas County 3 miles north northwest of Thedford and was on the ground for 15 miles before lifting in southeast Cherry County 6 miles east southeast of Brownlee. The path was over rangeland destroying 9 windmills, several miles of fences and nemerous trees. This was the most significant of 6 tornadoes produced by the same supercell thunderstorm.

5. Jun 12, 2010Flood$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

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

6. Jul 26, 2000Hail$50,000
7. Jun 3, 2014Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Park officials reported winds estimated up to 100 mph. The strong winds uprooted several trees and downed tree limbs at the Nebraska National Forest west of Halsey. The winds destroyed an empty, older mobile home and the roof of a home sustained damage from a tree that fell.

8. May 22, 2004Hail$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hail broke 32 roof panels and 97 windows in greenhouses.

9. Nov 30, 2019Blizzard, Thomas$25,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A CoCoRaHS observer in Halsey reported 5.5 inches of snowfall. Freezing drizzle preceded the snow during the early morning hours, changing to snow after 6 am CST. Snowfall amounts ranged from 3 to 6 inches across Thomas County. Strong northwest winds of 30 to 40 mph with gusts around 50 mph during the daytime and into the evening hours caused numerous downed power poles and power lines from ice covered power lines. The high winds also caused considerable blowing and drifting snow with visibility as low as a quarter mile at times. This caused blizzard conditions and some road closures across Thomas County.

10. Dec 1, 2019Blizzard, Thomas$25,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A CoCoRaHS observer in Halsey reported 5.5 inches of snowfall. Blizzard conditions developed on November 30th and continued through the early morning and morning hours on December 1st. Total snowfall amounts ranged from 3 to 6 inches across Thomas County. Strong northwest winds of 30 to 40 mph with gusts around 50 mph continued through the early morning and morning hours with considerable blowing and drifting snow with visibility as low as a quarter mile at times. This caused blizzard conditions and some road closures across Thomas County. Numerous power outages continued from the strong winds with power poles and power lines on the ground at some locations.

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

114°FJul 24, 1940

All-time low

−40°FFeb 14, 2021

Warmest night

80°FJul 24, 1940

Coldest day

−11°F2 times, most recently Feb 8, 1936

Wettest day

7.00 inMar 14, 2021

Snowiest day

19.0 inJan 4, 1949

Hottest year

1934mean 52.9°F

Coldest year

1951mean 45.9°F

Wettest year

202144.27 in

Driest year

195510.72 in

Snowiest season

66.5 in2017-18

Station Purdum (USC00256970), 2,690 ft elevation, 17.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1902 to August 31, 2026; 88.7% 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 USC00256970.
• 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.