Blue Hill, Nebraska
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1898 and the latest in 1985. It stands in District 2. It lies in ZIP code area 68930. The Survey maps it on the Blue Hill quadrangle. 805 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,975 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBlue Hill fell from 936 to 805 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 | 936 | |
| 2020 | 805 | -131 (-14%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 11 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.
- 1898 USGS Superior quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Blue Hill quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Red Cloud quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
6 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Blue Hill between 2001 and 2018, burning about 26 acres in total. None started naturally. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Equipment and vehicle use | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 July 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 6 March 2010 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 30 March 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 9 November 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 15 November 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 21 October 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 20 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
45 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Blue Hill in 45 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 27 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 6 heavy rain, 2 lightning. The reports record 1 death. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 1998 | Lightning | Blue Hill | 1 killed | no account filed |
| July 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blue Hill | $1,000,000 | Wind gusts were estimated to be between 60 and 70 MPH. Irrigation pivots were reported downed just west of Blue Hill and bean fields were damaged due to the combination of the wind and hail of unknown size. |
| May 2012 | Hail | Blue Hill | $500,000 | Golf ball size hail fell for nearly 20 minutes, causing severe crop damage and building damage in the area. |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blue Hill | $250,000 | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Hail | Blue Hill | $100,000 | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Lightning | Blue Hill | $80,000 | no account filed |
| December 2021 | Tornado (EF1) | Blue Hill | $50,000 | This tornado touched down in Webster County and lifted north into Adams County. This intermittent tornado path started west of Blue Hill, with damage including some irrigation pipe strewn into a tree line, and some tree damage a few miles west of town. As the tornado moved northeast, more pivots were overturned. The maximum wind gust was estimated to be 100 MPH, based upon the snapping of power poles southeast of Ayr. Spotters saw the tornado west of Glenvil, where it upset another pivot before lifting. |
| April 2003 | Hail | Blue Hill | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Blue Hill | $50,000 | no account filed |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blue Hill | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 2018 | Hail | Blue Hill | $25,000 | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Hail | Blue Hill | $25,000 | no account filed |
| May 2012 | Hail | Blue Hill | $25,000 | no account filed |
| May 2012 | Hail | Blue Hill | $25,000 | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Hail | Blue Hill | $15,000 | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Hail | Blue Hill | $10,000 | no account filed |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blue Hill | - | A grain bin was damaged on the north side of Blue Hill. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blue Hill | - | A wind gust of 62 MPH was recorded by a mesonet station located 1 mile west-southwest of Blue Hill. |
| April 2019 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | Nickel to ping pong ball size hail covered the ground. |
| September 2018 | Heavy Rain | Blue Hill | - | A multi-day rainfall total of 6.28 was reported 2 miles northeast of Blue Hill. |
| September 2018 | Heavy Rain | Blue Hill | - | A 24 hour rainfall total of 3.71 inches was reported, with the brunt of the rain falling between 5 PM CDT on the 1st and 4 AM CDT on the 2nd. |
| August 2016 | Heavy Rain | Blue Hill | - | Storm total rainfall of 6.62 inches...all of which fell between 9:30 p.m. and 5 a.m. CDT. |
| August 2016 | Heavy Rain | Blue Hill | - | Storm total rainfall of 5.50 inches...all of which fell between 9:30 p.m. and 5 a.m. CDT. |
| April 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blue Hill | - | This was measured at a home weather station. |
| July 2014 | Heavy Rain | Blue Hill | - | The storm total rainfall amount was 3.34 inches. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blue Hill | - | Wind gusts were estimated at 60 MPH, causing tree damage in town, including at least one tree uprooted and several large branches knocked down. |
| August 2011 | Heavy Rain | Blue Hill | - | Storm total rainfall of 3.38 inches was reported. |
| June 2019 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| May 2019 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| May 2019 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| April 2019 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| September 2015 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| May 2012 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| May 2012 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| October 2011 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| September 2010 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| September 2010 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| September 2010 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Funnel Cloud | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blue Hill | - | no account filed |
| April 1994 | Hail | Blue Hill | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rosemont | 5.5 miles | 11 | |
| Bladen | 7.8 miles | 12 | |
| Cowles | 11.1 miles | 11 | |
| Amboy | 16.7 miles | 11 | |
| Lester Junction | 17.0 miles | 11 | |
| Red Cloud | 17.2 miles | 15 | |
| Guide Rock | 18.9 miles | 11 | |
| Pawnee Village | 19.0 miles | 11 |
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 Blue Hill | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q885727 | 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 827502. 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.





