Amherst, Nebraska
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1896 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Precinct 26. It lies in ZIP code area 68845. The Survey maps it on the Amherst quadrangle. 201 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,356 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresAmherst fell from 248 to 201 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 248 | |
| 2020 | 201 | -47 (-19%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 16 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1896 USGS Kearney quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
- 1955 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Amherst quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Kearney quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
What the histories say of this town
257 words1 chapter about Amherst from the published histories of the county, public domain and reproduced complete.
| Chapter | From | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Buffalo County, Nebraska, and Its People : a Record of Settlement, Org | Buffalo County, Nebraska, and Its People : a Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement (1916) | 257 words |
Fires near this place
22 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 22 fires within 5 miles of Amherst between 2001 and 2019, burning about 25 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 9 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 September 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 20 September 2010 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 31 August 2001 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 3 July 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 2 July 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 19 July 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 10 June 2011 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 16 May 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
28 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Amherst in 28 storm reports between 1993 and 2023: 18 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2002 | Hail | Amherst | $10,000,000 | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | $500,000 | Wind gusts were estimated at 80 MPH. Damage later reported in the area by the Emergency Manager included outbuildings damaged, power poles knocked over, and overturned pivots. |
| September 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | $200,000 | Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH and was accompanied by hail up to the size of ping pong balls. |
| September 2017 | Hail | Amherst | $200,000 | Hail ranged in size from quarters to ping pong balls. |
| May 2005 | Hail | Amherst | $50,000 | Three different hail storms were reported over a 20 minute period, with hail sizes ranging from dime to golf balls. |
| October 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | $30,000 | Wind gusts estimated to be near 70 MPH resulted in large tree branches being downed. The side of a metal machine shed was blown out and the steel supports were bent. |
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | $25,000 | Damage was reported approximately 10 miles north of Amherst, where a small outbuilding was knocked over. A lot of blowing dust was also reported along Highway 10. |
| May 2012 | Hail | Amherst | $25,000 | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | $25,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Amherst | $20,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Amherst | $20,000 | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Hail | Amherst | $20,000 | no account filed |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH. |
| August 2014 | Hail | Amherst | - | Wind gusts of 50 mph occurred along with the quarter size hail. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | Wind gusts estimated at 90 MPH. |
| April 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | Thunderstorm winds greater than 60 mph were measured near Amherst. |
| May 2023 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| June 2023 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| August 2020 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| September 2017 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| July 2016 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| September 2015 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| October 2014 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| July 1995 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| July 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Odessa | 4.7 miles | 16 | |
| Riverdale | 5.8 miles | 15 | |
| Elm Creek | 6.4 miles | 16 | |
| Alfalfa Center | 7.1 miles | 18 | |
| R-Villa Courts | 9.5 miles | 20 | |
| Glenwood Park | 10.0 miles | 20 | |
| Kearney | 11.1 miles | 20 | |
| Prairie View Estates | 11.1 miles | 20 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Amherst | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2239539 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 826980. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.





