Bushnell, Nebraska
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Bushnell precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 69128. The Survey maps it on the Bushnell quadrangle. 115 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,872 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBushnell fell from 124 to 115 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 | 124 | |
| 2020 | 115 | -9 (-7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 8 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.
- 1954 USGS Scottsbluff quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Scottsbluff quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1972 USGS Bushnell quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Kimball quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
14 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of Bushnell between 2004 and 2018, burning about 109 acres in total. 3 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Natural | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 September 2016 | Natural | 70 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 20 September 2010 | Natural | 2.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 20 September 2010 | Natural | 15 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 10 September 2018 | Debris and open burning | 13 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 14 August 2007 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 2.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 4 July 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 4 July 2007 | Fireworks | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 21 July 2008 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
60 of 94 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bushnell in 94 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 59 hail, 14 thunderstorm wind, 11 tornado, 8 flash flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1997 | Flash Flood | Bushnell | $1,000,000 | A series of thunderstorms produced in excess of 7.5 inches of rain over parts of western Kimball County during a 5-hour time frame. Flooding occurred along Lodgepole Creek from Bushnell east to the county line. |
| June 2010 | Flash Flood | Bushnell | $10,000 | County roads washed out from heavy rainfall just south of town. |
| May 2010 | Flash Flood | Bushnell | $2,000 | Two draws that flowed into Lodgepole Creek were flooded and flowing rapidly. Some damage to the banks of Interstate 80 near the Wyoming and Nebraska state line showed a lot of erosion. |
| March 2025 | Hail | Bushnell | - | A trained spotter just east of Pine Bluffs and the Nebraska and Wyoming border reported 1 inch diameter hail along Interstate 80. |
| June 2025 | Tornado (EF0) | Bushnell | - | Brief tornado touched down in a field, verified by photos and timing estimated with radar. Damage to a center pivot irrigation system. |
| June 2025 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Trained spotter reports ping pong ball size hail southwest of Kimball Nebraska. |
| June 2025 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Public reports quarter size hail. |
| August 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bushnell | - | AWOS station K1EW located 6 miles southeast of Pine Bluffs Wyoming reported this wind gust. |
| August 2024 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Trained storm spotter reported golf ball sized hail at this location. Delayed report, so time estimated from radar. |
| May 2023 | Tornado (EFU) | Bushnell | - | Trained weather spotters observed a brief tornado approximately 3 miles NW of Bushnell. |
| May 2023 | Hail | Bushnell | - | An Emergency Management Official reported quarter sized hail approximately 3 miles south of Bushnell. |
| June 2023 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Quarter sized hail was reported 11 miles NW of Bushnell. |
| July 2020 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Report of 49 MPH wind gusts recorded at 335 PM. |
| July 2020 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Observer measured using handheld device wind gusts up to 50 mph as well. |
| August 2018 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Quarter size hail covered the ground southeast of Bushnell. |
| June 2017 | Tornado (EF1) | Bushnell | - | A brief tornado touched down along County Road 17 approximately 9 miles north of Bushnell, NE. A roof of an old barn was torn off and exterior walls collapsed (DI 1, DOD 6). An auger cart and auger were tipped. Power poles broke near the farm. |
| August 2017 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Quarter size hail was observed south of Bushnell. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bushnell | - | An estimated wind gust of 60 mph was reported at Bushnell. |
| June 2016 | Flash Flood | Bushnell | - | One to two inches of rain in an hour produced flash flooding. County officials reported several county roads flooded south of Bushnell. |
| September 2016 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Dime to quarter size hail covered the ground near Panorama Point. |
| August 2016 | Heavy Rain | Bushnell | - | Two and a half inches of rain was reported at Bushnell. |
| August 2016 | Flash Flood | Bushnell | - | Flash flooding was reported at Bushnell, Kimball and Dix. |
| July 2016 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Quarter size hail was reported four miles east of Panorama Point. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bushnell | - | Estimated 75 mph wind gusts five miles south of Bushnell damaged or destroyed several outbuildings. A home sustained heavy wind damage. |
| July 2016 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Golf ball size hail heavily damaged a home two miles southeast of Bushnell. |
| May 2014 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Quarter size hail was observed north of Bushnell. |
| May 2014 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Quarter size hail was reported in Bushnell. |
| July 2014 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Quarter size hail was reported north of Bushnell. |
| May 2014 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Penny to quarter size hail was reported south of Bushnell. |
| May 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bushnell | - | Winds were estimated at 55 to 60 mph south of Bushnell. |
| June 2014 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Ping pong ball size hail was reported east of Bushnell along US Highway 30. |
| June 2014 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Quarter size hail was observed 10 miles east of Panorama Point. |
| June 2014 | Tornado (EF0) | Bushnell | - | A small tornado touched down about seven miles south of Bushnell. It was on the ground for five minutes before it lifted. No damage as reported. |
| August 2013 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Quarter size hail was reported west of Bushnell. |
| August 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bushnell | - | Estimated wind gusts of 75 mph were reported west of Bushnell. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Dime to quarter size hail was reported four miles west of the Oliver Reservoir. |
| July 2012 | Flash Flood | Bushnell | - | County Road 13 was washed out through the intersection of County Road 54. |
| May 2012 | Hail | Bushnell | - | There were numerous reports of golf ball to baseball sized hail in Bushnell. |
| June 2011 | Flash Flood | Bushnell | - | County Roads 6, 8 and 11 all were flooded. |
| August 2011 | Tornado (EF0) | Bushnell | - | An EF0 tornado touched down a few miles southeast of Bushnell between County Roads 20 and 30. No damage was reported. |
| July 2010 | Tornado (EF0) | Bushnell | - | Spotter reported tornado on ground for about 30 seconds before lifting back up into wall cloud. |
| July 2010 | Tornado (EF0) | Bushnell | - | Small tornado reported roughly 7 miles southeast of Pine Bluffs Wyoming. |
| May 2010 | Tornado (EF0) | Bushnell | - | Brief touchdown. No damage reported. |
| May 2008 | Tornado (EF0) | Bushnell | - | Tornado tracked a short distance over open country. |
| August 2007 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Hail from 0.75 to 1.75 inches in diameter reported. |
| June 2004 | Tornado (F0) | Bushnell | - | Small tornado over open country. |
| August 2003 | Hail | Bushnell | - | Substantial amount of mainly small hail fell northwest of Bushnell, NE, with some damagereported in field of millet and field of sunflowers. Hail reported to have drifted 2-3 feet deepin a few places. |
| May 1999 | Hail | Bushnell | - | 3/4 inch hail accumulated up to two inches deep on highway 30 near Pine Bluffs, WY |
| May 1998 | Tornado (F0) | Bushnell | - | A tornado was reported by spotters which was on the ground for less than a minute, then dissipated. |
| July 1998 | Flash Flood | Bushnell | - | Thunderstorms produced 1 to 2 inches of rainfall 7.5 miles south of Bushnell. County road 17 was closed in this area due to the flood waters. |
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bushnell | - | Gustnado 1SW of Bushnell I-80 interchange |
| July 1994 | Hail | Bushnell | - | A United States Air Force missile site received limited damage from strong winds and large hail. |
| July 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bushnell | - | A United States Air Force missile site received limited damage from strong winds and large hail. |
| May 2023 | Hail | Bushnell | - | no account filed |
| July 2021 | Hail | Bushnell | - | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Hail | Bushnell | - | no account filed |
| May 2020 | Hail | Bushnell | - | no account filed |
| June 2019 | Hail | Bushnell | - | no account filed |
| June 2018 | Hail | Bushnell | - | no account filed |
| June 2018 | Hail | Bushnell | - | 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.
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 Bushnell | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2797437 | 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 827814. 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.



