Firth, Nebraska
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1986. It stands in South Pass precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 68358. The Survey maps it on the Firth quadrangle. 649 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,325 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresFirth grew from 590 to 649 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 | 590 | |
| 2020 | 649 | +59 (+10%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 14 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
- 1965 USGS Firth quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
32 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 32 fires within 5 miles of Firth between 2004 and 2020, burning about 135 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 | 24 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 September 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 19 August 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 8 July 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 13 June 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 11 June 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 10 June 2018 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 7 April 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 5.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 7 April 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
26 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Firth in 26 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 13 thunderstorm wind, 10 hail, 2 tornado, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2000 | Hail | Firth | $2,000,000 | A very destructive hailstorm was centered on Firth Nebraska. The path of destruction was 6 to 8 miles wide and 20 to 30 miles long beginning near Sprague in Lancaster county and continuing to near Sterling in extreme northwest Johnson county. In Firth, hail up to the size of baseballs was driven by 50 mph winds. 148 out of 200 houses and businesses in town were heavily damaged with almost every north facing window broken out. Siding damage was also extensive. In Lancaster county, crop losses included around 20 percent of 10 thousand acres of corn, 30 percent of 6 thousand acres of soybeans and 10 percent of 2 thousand acres of sorghum. From southern Lancaster county into extreme northern Gage and northwest Johnson counties a total of 34 thousand acres of corn, 36 thousand acres of soybeans and 14 thousand acres of sorghum were heavily damaged. The Farm Service Agency estimated that the damaged fields in Gage county amounted to 36 thousand acres with losses around 65 percent for corn and soybeans and 45 percent for sorghum. |
| May 2007 | Flash Flood | Firth | $10,000 | Heavy rainfall of an inch or two produced flash flooding which blocked some county roads near Firth. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Firth | - | A 60 mph wind gust was measured by a personal weather station. |
| September 2024 | Hail | Firth | - | The office received a public report form mPING of quarter sized hail. |
| September 2024 | Hail | Firth | - | The office received a public report of quarter sized hail in Firth. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Firth | - | Trained spotter reported a measured peak wind gust of 63 mph. |
| October 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Firth | - | Public reported a measured peak wind gust of 65 mph. |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Firth | - | Personal weather station measured a peak wind gust of 63 mph. |
| July 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Firth | - | Public reported a measured wind gust of 59 mph. |
| October 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Firth | - | Trained spotter estimated wind gusts at 72 mph. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Firth | - | CO-OP observer measured winds at 70 mph. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Firth | - | CO-OP observer measured winds at 70 mph. |
| May 2015 | Tornado (EF0) | Firth | - | Storm chaser reports, as well as video, indicated a brief tornado occurred from the supercell in southern Lancaster County. No damage was reported from the tornado, and video indicated that the tornado was brief. |
| May 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Firth | - | Shingle and tree damage was reported associated with the wind gust near Firth. |
| June 2006 | Hail | Firth | - | Hail up to 1 inch in diameter punched holes in aluminim siding in town. The hail was accompanied by wind gusts estimated at over 60 mph. |
| June 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Firth | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated at over 60 mph by emergency management. |
| September 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Firth | - | no account filed |
| September 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Firth | - | no account filed |
| September 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Firth | - | no account filed |
| April 2017 | Hail | Firth | - | no account filed |
| April 2017 | Hail | Firth | - | no account filed |
| September 2010 | Hail | Firth | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Firth | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Firth | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Firth | - | no account filed |
| May 1997 | Tornado (F0) | Firth | - | 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 Firth | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2534956 | 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 829302. 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.





