Cortland, Nebraska
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Highland Township. It lies in ZIP code area 68331. The Survey maps it on the Cortland quadrangle. 504 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,444 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresCortland grew from 482 to 504 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 | 482 | |
| 2020 | 504 | +22 (+5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 15 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.
- 1897 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1955 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1957 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS Cortland quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1986 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
31 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 31 fires within 5 miles of Cortland between 2000 and 2020, burning about 283 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 | 19 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 3 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 September 2000 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 28 September 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 8 July 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 4 July 2007 | Fireworks | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 23 July 2011 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 5 June 2010 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 3 April 2011 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 3 April 2011 | 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
38 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cortland in 38 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 21 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 3 funnel cloud. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2015 | Flash Flood | Cortland | $20,000 | Emergency management reported that water was starting to flood United States Highway 77. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortland | - | A 68 miles per hour wind gust was measured by a personal weather station. |
| June 2020 | Hail | Cortland | - | Emergency management reported some roof damage, vehicle damage, and crop damage due to 2 inch hail. |
| June 2020 | Hail | Cortland | - | Emergency management reported 1.5 inch hail. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortland | - | Emergency management reported power lines down and large tree limbs broken. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortland | - | Public reported a 1 foot diameter tree snapped. Also noted other large tree limbs down. |
| October 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortland | - | Personal weather station measured a peak wind gust of 58 mph. |
| May 2019 | Heavy Rain | Cortland | - | Up to 3.36 inches of rain reported near Cortland. |
| September 2019 | Hail | Cortland | - | The public reported hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter. Winds of 50 to 60 mph were also reported. |
| April 2017 | Tornado (EF0) | Cortland | - | A storm chaser captured photographic images of a short-lived weak tornado that occurred as a supercell crossed the surface boundary. No damage was observed in the area and the tornado quickly dissipated. |
| May 2015 | Tornado (EF1) | Cortland | - | A damage survey indicated a weak tornado developed near Cortland and traveled to the northeast. Damage in Cortland and surrounding areas of Gage County consisted of large tree branches and some minor shed damage. This tornado then continued into Lancaster County. |
| May 2014 | Hail | Cortland | - | Hail a little under 3 inches in diameter was reported south of Cortland. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortland | - | Several trees and power lines were downed and a grain bin toppled and pushed into a surrounding field by thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at around 70 mph. |
| May 2013 | Flash Flood | Cortland | - | Heavy thunderstorm rains of 2 to 3 inches fell across the city of Cortland in a short time leading to flash flooding. Water covered highway 77 in Cortland. |
| November 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortland | - | Outflow gusts from thunderstorms were estimated around 60 mph. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortland | - | Hail up to baseball-size was driven by thunderstorm winds estimated at 60 to 70 mph. The wind and hail flattened crops from near Cortland southeast to south of Adams then continuing into Johnson, Pawnee and Richardson counties. In Gage county the damage was visible by satellite pictures and was 10 to 15 miles wide. The hail also caused considerable house and vehicle damage along its path. |
| June 2010 | Hail | Cortland | - | Hail up to 1 inch in diameter covered the road north of Beatrice. |
| June 2010 | Hail | Cortland | - | Hail up to baseball-size was driven by thunderstorm winds estimated at 60 to 70 mph. The wind and hail flattened crops or in some cases mowed them down to a few inches from the ground from near Cortland southeast to south of Adams then continuing into Johnson, Pawnee and Richardson counties. In Gage county the damage was visible by satellite pictures and was 10 to 15 miles wide at its widest. However, the most serious damage was about 3 miles wide and 12 miles long or about 36 square miles of crops that were destroyed in northeast Gage county alone. The hail also caused considerable house and vehicle damage along its path. |
| April 2009 | Funnel Cloud | Cortland | - | Emergency management spotted possibly two funnel clouds southeast of the the Jct of Highways 41 and 77 south of Cortland. The funnels were from the same mini-supercell thunderstorm that produced a tornado north of Beatrice. |
| August 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortland | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at between 60 and 70 mph downed a few large trees which covered Highway 77 in Cortland. |
| June 2006 | Hail | Cortland | - | Hail up to 1 inch in diameter fell for 10 to 15 minutes east of Cortland. |
| June 2017 | Hail | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| June 2017 | Hail | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| April 2010 | Hail | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| September 2010 | Hail | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Hail | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Hail | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Funnel Cloud | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| May 1997 | Tornado (F0) | Cortland | - | no account filed |
| May 1997 | Funnel Cloud | Cortland | - | 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 Cortland | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2388992 | 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 828355. 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.





