Colon, Nebraska
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1899 and the latest in 1982. It stands in Center Township. It lies in ZIP code area 68018. It stands on Sand Creek. The Survey maps it on the Colon quadrangle. 107 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,243 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresColon fell from 110 to 107 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 | 110 | |
| 2020 | 107 | -3 (-3%) |
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.
- 1899 USGS Wahoo quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Colon quadrangle1:24000
- 1982 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
21 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 21 fires within 5 miles of Colon between 2003 and 2020, burning about 88 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 | 14 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 4 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 September 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 10 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 14 June 2008 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 31 May 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 15 May 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 10 May 2006 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 6 April 2003 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 4 April 2009 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 14 April 2019 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
24 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Colon in 24 storm reports between 2000 and 2025: 18 hail, 5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2025 | Hail | Colon | - | Public reported estimated 1 hail with a snowball-like formation. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Colon | - | The office received a public report of quarter sized hail from mPING. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Colon | - | Public reported a large oak tree blown over near St. Joseph church in Colon. |
| August 2020 | Hail | Colon | - | Public reported 2.5 inch hail. |
| August 2020 | Hail | Colon | - | NWS Employee reported 2 inch hail. |
| September 2019 | Hail | Colon | - | A social media photo indicated 2 inch hail fell near Colon. |
| September 2018 | Hail | Colon | - | Reported via social media. Several windows were broken in a home and the hail covered the ground. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Colon | - | A slow moving supercell thunderstorm brought a prolonged period of hail from the western and northern sections of Fremont west and southwest through Cedar Bluffs and Wahoo. Although only nickel size hail was reported in Colon, the hail was likely a little larger and lasted for at least 10 minutes. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Colon | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at close to 60 mph snapped a 7 foot tall tree that was about 4 to 5 inches in diameter. Various other 3 to 5 inch in diameter branches were also downed around town. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Colon | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at 60 mph knocked down some large tree limbs northwest of Colon. |
| May 2003 | Tornado (F0) | Colon | - | A weak tornado touched near the town of Colon causing some tree damage. The tornado lifted around a mile northeast of town but not before causing some minor shed and roof damage near town. |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Colon | - | Grain bins were blown down near Colon from the same thunderstorm that caused extensive tree damage around Wahoo. |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Colon | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at around 60 mph by a ham radio operator. The winds broke several large tree limbs between Colon and Wahoo. |
| September 2019 | Hail | Colon | - | no account filed |
| September 2018 | Hail | Colon | - | no account filed |
| June 2017 | Hail | Colon | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Colon | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Colon | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Colon | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Hail | Colon | - | no account filed |
| July 2007 | Hail | Colon | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Colon | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Colon | - | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Colon | - | 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 Colon | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2300879 | 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 828274. 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.





