Cook, Nebraska
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1903 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Spring Creek precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 68329. It stands on Coon Creek. The Survey maps it on the Cook quadrangle. 319 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,053 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresCook fell from 321 to 319 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 | 321 | |
| 2020 | 319 | -2 (-1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 13 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.
- 1903 USGS Weeping Water quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1929 USGS Weeping Water quadrangle1:125000
- 1955 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1957 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS Cook quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
7 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Cook between 2004 and 2020, burning about 25 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 | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 March 2004 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 16 March 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 10 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 1 March 2020 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 5 February 2005 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 19 February 2016 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 27 November 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 6.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 21 January 2007 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
32 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cook in 32 storm reports between 1996 and 2026: 23 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 4 tornado, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2026 | Hail | Cook | - | Delayed public report received via social media of hail measured up to 1.25 inches in diameter near Cook, NE. Time estimated with radar. |
| April 2025 | Hail | Cook | - | Law enforcement reported measured hail up to 1 in diameter. |
| June 2022 | Hail | Cook | - | Trained spotter reported 1 inch hail. |
| May 2022 | Hail | Cook | - | Public reported quarter size hail. |
| June 2022 | Hail | Cook | - | Public reported slightly larger than golf ball sized hail and significant damage to siding and crops. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cook | - | Public reported lots of tree damage in Cook. 6 inch and greater tree branches down. Pictures were sent via social media. |
| October 2018 | Flood | Cook | - | Water was reported over a county road west of Cook, NE. The person reported 4.20 inches of rain since the storm began earlier in the day. |
| March 2012 | Hail | Cook | - | Pea to quarter-size hail fell in Cook. |
| April 2012 | Tornado (EF0) | Cook | - | A weak tornado overturned a few center pivots as it tracked mostly in open fields southwest of Talmage. Some tree and outbuildings were also damaged along its 3.75 mile path. The tornado initially touched down just in Johnson county, but most of the track was in Nemaha county. |
| April 2012 | Tornado (EF2) | Cook | - | This tornado touched down 5 miles west-southwest of Cook where it damaged trees and overturned a center pivot. A farmstead near there had 6 to 8 power poles snapped along with tree damage. From there the damage path was mostly east-northeast. About 1.5 miles west-northwest of Cook a home sustained significant structural damage, with the roof lifted completely off and 2 of its anchored exterior walls destroyed. An attached garage was destroyed as was a large shed. Materials from the house were blown at least a quarter of a mile away. Along Highway 50 several trees were knocked down in the Cook Cemetery. The tornado appeared to weaken as it crossed Highway 50, but still snapped trees and power poles along Road 738 north of Cook and caused tree damage near the football field. The tornado lifted about 1 mile east-northeast of Cook. |
| August 2012 | Hail | Cook | - | Hail up to 1 inch in diameter covered the ground near Cook. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cook | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at around 60 mph downed a few large trees of 1 foot to 4 feet in diameter in the Cook area. |
| June 2009 | Hail | Cook | - | Quarter to half dollar-size hail was reported in the Cook area. |
| May 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cook | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at over 60 mph uprooted an oak tree southwest of Cook. |
| June 2005 | Hail | Cook | - | Hail up to nickel size fell for 3 to 5 minutes near Cook. |
| August 2004 | Hail | Cook | - | Hail up to golfball size was reported south of Cook. The hail caused damage to several cars in the area. |
| April 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cook | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at around 70 mph damaged outbuildings near Cook. |
| May 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Cook | - | Brief touchdown. |
| May 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Cook | - | Brief touchdown in open country. |
| June 2018 | Hail | Cook | - | no account filed |
| June 2018 | Hail | Cook | - | no account filed |
| April 2017 | Hail | Cook | - | no account filed |
| May 2015 | Hail | Cook | - | no account filed |
| March 2012 | Hail | Cook | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Cook | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Cook | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Cook | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Cook | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Cook | - | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Cook | - | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Cook | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Hail | Cook | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helena (historical) | 4.6 miles | 13 | |
| Graf (historical) | 8.2 miles | 10 | |
| Saint Mary | 8.9 miles | 10 | |
| Tecumseh | 10.0 miles | 10 | |
| Sterling | 11.9 miles | 10 | |
| Vesta | 14.0 miles | 10 | |
| Elk Creek | 15.5 miles | 10 | |
| Crab Orchard | 18.2 miles | 10 |
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 Cook | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2561369 | 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 828307. 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.






