Cordova, Nebraska

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Precinct M. It lies in ZIP code area 68359. The Survey maps it on the Friend quadrangle. 92 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,568 feet above sea level.

Cordova within Seward County

Population over time

2 figures

Cordova fell from 137 to 92 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	137
2020	92	-45 (-33%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 10 printed sheets

Matched 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 Lincoln quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
1957 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000
1966 USGS Friend quadrangle1:24000
1985 USGS York quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

Fires near this place

12 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Cordova between 2005 and 2020, burning about 146 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	5
Debris and open burning	5
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
28 September 2020	Debris and open burning	5.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
20 September 2010	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
20 September 2010	Equipment and vehicle use	2.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
15 August 2012	Equipment and vehicle use	20 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
9 June 2016	Power generation/transmission/distribution	1.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
9 May 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	2.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
7 May 2018	Debris and open burning	20 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
6 March 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	6.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Beaver Crossing

Every fire recorded in Seward County

Storms near this place

8 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cordova in 8 storm reports between 2001 and 2025: 3 hail, 2 tornado, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 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 2014	Tornado (EF3)	Cordova	$2,400,000	This tornado crossed into Seward county from York county and was the most intense tornado during this outbreak with a track of around 14 miles in Seward county. The tornado moved just north of the city of Cordova crossing State Highway 76A. Here the tornado impacted several rural residents. High end EF2 damage was done to one brick home where the roof was completely removed and some external walls were knocked down. The tornado continued northeast crossing Yankee Hill Rd less than a mile from State Highway 76A, and this is where the most significant damage occurred. Here a well built brick home had the roof completely removed, exterior walls knocked down, and a couple of interior walls downed as well. The tornado continued northeast while widening, but generally decreasing in intensity as it crossed Denton and Old Cheney Roads. The tornado reached its maximum width to the southwest of Beaver Crossing before moving directly into town. Widespread damage was observed in Beaver Crossing with nearly every structure in town sustaining some damage. In the city scattered EF2 damage was noted with several structures having thier roofs removed. Otherwise most of the damage was tree, power line and outbuildings being destroyed. The tornado exited Beaver Crossing and moved northeast while decreasing in width and intensity eventually dissipating less than 1 mile south of Interstate 80.
August 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Cordova	$1,410,000	A damaging wind event tracked across Seward County, Nebraska, on the morning of August 9th, 2025, impacting areas from the southwest to the eastern portion of the county. The storm produced a number of strong, measured wind gusts, with the highest recorded being 82 miles per hour from a public weather station 3 miles south-southwest of Seward. Other measured gusts were consistently severe, including 80 miles per hour 2 miles south of Milford, and 76 miles per hour 2 miles southeast of Seward, indicating a widespread high-wind event across the county.\|\|The measured gusts translated into significant damage, with numerous reports estimating winds in the 70 to 80 miles per hour range. Structural damage was reported by an NWS employee 4 miles south-southwest of Garland, where a roof was torn off a shed and large trees were downed. Elsewhere, public reports detailed large trees down on a house and vehicle 3 miles east of Cordova, and a large tree impacting a roof in Seward. These widespread tree and minor structural damage incidents contributed to a final damage cost estimate for public infrastructure of $1,411,213.00. This estimate covers only public assets and infrastructure and does not reflect the total damage sustained by private homes and businesses.
June 2022	Hail	Cordova	-	Public reported golf ball sized hail.
June 2021	Flash Flood	Cordova	-	Dispatched relayed report of water over roads in southwest Seward County.
May 2014	Tornado (EF1)	Cordova	-	This tornado crossed into Seward county from York county and was from a trailing supercell thunderstorm that followed the storm that produced an EF3 tornado just to the south a little earlier. This tornado was responsible snapping several power poles as it entered into Seward County along 476th street. The tornado continued northeast producing occasional tree damage, tipping over center pivot irrigation equipment, and outbuilding damage.
May 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Cordova	-	A wide swath of straight line wind damage was noted to the south of the track of the tornado associated with the rear-flank downdraft. This damage included areas from near Cardova northeast to southeast of Beaver Crossing and was nearly 4 miles wide at times. The damage surveyed was consistent with winds greater than 100 mph. The damage included downed power poles, completely destroyed outbuildings at numerous farmsteads, numerous center pivots flipped and trees uprooted and snapped.
June 2014	Hail	Cordova	-	Hail covered the ground.
June 2001	Hail	Cordova	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Seward County

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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Beaver Crossing	5.7 miles	14
Goehner	10.6 miles	15
Utica	12.4 miles	14
Tamora	14.0 miles	14
Milford	16.5 miles	15
Ruby	16.6 miles	15
Riverside Park	16.7 miles	15
Grover	17.3 miles	15

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 Cordova	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3289062	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 828338. 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.