Gilead, Nebraska
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Alexandria precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 68362. The Survey maps it on the Alexandria quadrangle. 30 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,539 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresGilead fell from 39 to 30 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 | 39 | |
| 2020 | 30 | -9 (-23%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 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.
- 1955 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1957 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Alexandria quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Fairbury quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
22 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 22 fires within 5 miles of Gilead between 2003 and 2019, burning about 383 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 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 July 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 30 July 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.1 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 30 July 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 21 July 2010 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 15 July 2011 | Recreation and ceremony | 3.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 6 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 80 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 2 April 2011 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 2 April 2011 | 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
32 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Gilead in 32 storm reports between 1995 and 2024: 20 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 2 heavy rain. 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 1996 | Tornado (F1) | Gilead | $2,000,000 | no account filed |
| August 2021 | Hail | Gilead | $100,000 | A social media report stated that wind gusts near 65 MPH, combined with pea to approximately ping pong ball sized hail, resulted in corn and beans being defoliated by at least 50 percent near Gilead. |
| August 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gilead | $100,000 | Wind gusts were estimated to be at least 65 MPH along this path. A social media report stated the wind, combined with pea to approximately ping pong ball sized hail, resulted in corn and beans being defoliated by at least 50 percent near Gilead. |
| June 2017 | Hail | Gilead | $75,000 | no account filed |
| September 2015 | Hail | Gilead | $35,000 | This report was 2 miles east of Gilead. An error in the mapping program has plotted it almost 5 miles east-northeast. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gilead | $25,000 | Wind gusts were estimated at 70 MPH, knocking down tree limbs, including one 2.5 feet in diameter. |
| May 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gilead | $25,000 | Local law enforcement reported that the wind had brought down several large tree limbs and caused some power outages. There were also some reports of shingles being blown off of a few homes. |
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gilead | $10,000 | Near the intersection of Highways 136 and 53 just east of Gilead, 3 power poles were snapped. |
| May 1998 | Tornado (F0) | Gilead | $10,000 | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gilead | $5,000 | Wind gusts estimated to be near 60 MPH caused power outages in Gilead due to a downed power line. |
| July 1995 | Hail | Gilead | $5,000 | Thunderstorms producing tremendous amounts of large hail, driven by winds up to 65 mph, destroyed millions of dollars worth of crops. One storm tracked from the northwest to the south central part of Greeley County into north central Howard County. Another thunderstorm tracked from west central Howard County across Hall County and into western Hamilton County. The hail in Greeley County was reported as "blizzardlike" and many areas still had hail on the ground the next morning. Across the four counties, 57,000 acres of corn and 6,000 acres of soybeans were damaged. Near Wolbach, homes suffered roof and window damage, a barn was blown down, plastic irrigation pipes were penetrated by the hail, center pivot irrigation systems were knocked over, and several vehicles were dented and had windshields broken. In Howard County, 40 buildings were damaged. In Grand Island, tents were blown over at the Ethnic Festival. Thunderstorms also tracked farther southeast, continuing to damage crops and trees. In Hebron, thunderstorm winds damaged a grain bin, a satellite dish and the roofs of several homes. In addition, a golf cart shed was destroyed. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gilead | - | Wind gusts estimated to be near 65 MPH resulted in damage to an outbuilding just south of Gilead, when wind was able to get in open areas and shifted part of the building off its foundation. A wind gust of 58 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located one mile northwest of Gilead. |
| May 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gilead | - | A wind gust of 60 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located three miles south-southeast of Gilead. |
| May 2015 | Heavy Rain | Gilead | - | A 24 hour storm total rainfall amount of 5.50 inches was reported. |
| June 2015 | Heavy Rain | Gilead | - | Storm total rainfall of 3.15, all of which fell between 9 a.m.-2 p.m. CDT. This was a rather localized area of heavy rain over eastern Thayer County, and some short-term flooding was reported in the area by county officials. |
| April 2002 | Hail | Gilead | - | One inch size hail covered the ground in Gilead. |
| June 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Gilead | - | A brief tornado occurred north of Gilead. |
| September 2023 | Hail | Gilead | - | no account filed |
| June 2018 | Hail | Gilead | - | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Hail | Gilead | - | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Hail | Gilead | - | no account filed |
| October 2016 | Hail | Gilead | - | no account filed |
| September 2014 | Hail | Gilead | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Gilead | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Gilead | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Gilead | - | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Gilead | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Gilead | - | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Hail | Gilead | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Gilead | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Gilead | - | no account filed |
| September 1997 | Hail | Gilead | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Williams (historical) | 6.2 miles | 11 | |
| Alexandria | 6.9 miles | 11 | |
| Hebron | 9.3 miles | 13 | |
| Hubbell | 10.5 miles | 11 | |
| Belvidere | 10.6 miles | 12 | |
| Stoddard (historical) | 11.4 miles | 13 | |
| Chester | 14.4 miles | 13 | |
| Bruning | 15.4 miles | 12 |
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 Gilead | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q966468 | 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 829516. 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.




