Center, Nebraska
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Valley Township. It lies in ZIP code area 68724. The Survey maps it on the Center West quadrangle. 79 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,394 feet above sea level.
On record in Center
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Knox County Courthouselisted 1990
Population over time
2 figuresCenter fell from 94 to 79 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 | 94 | |
| 2020 | 79 | -15 (-16%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 10 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.
- 1955 USGS Sioux City quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Sioux City quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Sioux City quadrangle1:250000
- 1974 USGS Center West quadrangle1:24000
- 1977 USGS Center West quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Yankton quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
7 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Center between 2015 and 2020, burning about 294 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 5 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 August 2017 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 14 July 2016 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 3 April 2015 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 27 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 20 April 2015 | Debris and open burning | 40 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 18 March 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 6 November 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 218 acres | Winnebago Agency | CAMPBELL |
Storms near this place
28 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Center in 28 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 19 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. 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 2007 | Tornado (EF0) | Center | $10,000 | This tornado tracked north through a very rural area with most roads in the area minimum maintenance with limited access. A machine shed was destroyed and a trailer overturned northeast of Center and 6 cattle were killed in the area. But generally any damage was confined to old deserted farm sites along with trees in the area. |
| August 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Center | $3,000 | Roof blown off a shed. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Center | $2,000 | Law enforcement reported damage to wind screens and trees at a food lot. |
| July 2023 | Hail | Center | - | Trained spotter reported 1.5-inch hail. |
| July 2023 | Hail | Center | - | Law enforcement reported 1.25-inch hail. |
| July 2019 | Hail | Center | - | The public reported 1.25 inch hail north of Center. |
| June 2018 | Hail | Center | - | Golf ball size hail, covering the ground, in and around Center in Knox County caused significant damage to sidings and roofs. |
| August 2017 | Hail | Center | - | Nickel size hail was reported southwest of Center. |
| May 2009 | Hail | Center | - | Hail up to nickel-size covered the ground east of Center. |
| May 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Center | - | Thunderstorm winds knocked down tree limbs 4 inches in diameter. |
| June 2006 | Hail | Center | - | Hail up to 1 inch in diameter lasted for several minutes. The hail covered the ground white and also stripped leaves off of trees. |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Center | - | Law enforcement officials estimated thunderstorm wind gusts of around 60 mph in Center. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Center | - | Trees downed. Power outages. |
| August 1997 | Hail | Center | - | A significant hailstorm damaged corn and soybean crops in many parts of Knox county. The most significant damage occurred between Verdigre and Niobrara then east to Center and Bloomfield. |
| August 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Center | - | Numerous 3 to 4 inch tree limbs downed. |
| September 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Center | - | Strong thunderstorm winds destroyed trees and a couple of outbuildings. |
| August 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Center | - | Strong winds blew down large tree limbs. |
| April 2025 | Hail | Center | - | no account filed |
| July 2018 | Hail | Center | - | no account filed |
| August 2011 | Hail | Center | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Center | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Center | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Center | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Center | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Hail | Center | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Center | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Center | - | no account filed |
| September 1998 | Hail | Center | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sparta | 6.0 miles | 10 | |
| Bazile Mills | 6.8 miles | 10 | |
| Winnetoon | 8.0 miles | 10 | |
| Verdigre | 8.4 miles | 10 | |
| Creighton | 10.0 miles | 9 | |
| Lindy | 11.2 miles | 10 | |
| Bloomfield | 12.3 miles | 10 | |
| Tewsville | 12.5 miles | 9 |
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 Center | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2613155 | 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 828031. 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.





