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Harvard, Nebraska

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1898 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Harvard Township. It lies in ZIP code area 68944. The Survey maps it on the Harvard quadrangle. 951 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,801 feet above sea level.

Harvard within Clay County

On record in Harvard

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Harvard fell from 1,013 to 951 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.

YearPeople Change
20101,013
2020951-62 (-6%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 12 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.

Fires near this place

11 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Harvard between 2002 and 2020, burning about 78 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Debris and open burning3
Equipment and vehicle use3
Recreation and ceremony1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
8 September 2004Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresRainwater Basin Wetland Management DistrictHARVARD
1 August 2002Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreRainwater Basin Wetland Management DistrictLANGE SE
25 June 2020Equipment and vehicle use2.1 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
7 May 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
7 April 2016Equipment and vehicle use55 acresRainwater Basin Wetland Management DistrictWINDY HARVARD
12 April 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
13 March 2008Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresRainwater Basin Wetland Management DistrictBUNKER
10 March 2018Debris and open burning6.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Clay County

Storms near this place

45 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Harvard in 45 storm reports between 1995 and 2024: 26 hail, 17 thunderstorm wind, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
March 2006Thunderstorm WindHarvard$200,000no account filed
May 2022Thunderstorm WindHarvard$100,000A wind gust of 74 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located two miles southeast of Harvard. A wind gust of 59 MPH was measured by a Nebraska Mesonet station located four miles southwest of Harvard. A NWS Cooperative Observer reported that a semi-truck was blown over on Highway 6 just west of the Highway 14 intersection north of Clay Center and a car was blown off of Highway 6 near Road T near Saronville.
October 2014HailHarvard$100,000no account filed
October 2014HailHarvard$100,000no account filed
June 2012HailHarvard$50,000no account filed
August 2005Thunderstorm WindHarvard$50,000no account filed
August 2014Thunderstorm WindHarvard$25,000no account filed
August 1999Thunderstorm WindHarvard$25,000no account filed
May 2018Thunderstorm WindHarvard$15,000Wind gusts estimated to be near 70 MPH resulted in a few broken power poles along Highway 6.
June 2008HailHarvard$10,000no account filed
May 1998HailHarvard$10,000no account filed
April 2009HailHarvard$5,000no account filed
June 2008HailHarvard$5,000no account filed
August 2006HailHarvard$5,000no account filed
May 1998Thunderstorm WindHarvard$2,000no account filed
June 2023Thunderstorm WindHarvard-A wind gust of 58 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located two miles southeast of Harvard.
April 2022Thunderstorm WindHarvard-Wind gusts estimated to be near 65 MPH resulted in tree damaged and downed power lines in Harvard. The larger trees were approximately two feet in diameter.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindHarvard-A wind gust of 59 MPH was recorded by a Nebraska Mesonet station located four miles southwest of Harvard.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindHarvard-A wind gust of 66 MPH was recorded by a mesonet station in Harvard. Power outages were reported in town.
October 2020Thunderstorm WindHarvard-A wind gust of 60 MPH was recorded by a mesonet station located 4 miles southwest of Harvard.
June 2019Thunderstorm WindHarvard-Wind gusts were estimated to be at least 65 MPH across the area. Numerous small tree limbs were downed. Isolated larger limbs were downed, up to 8 to 10 inches in diameter in Clay Center, with a limb closer to 15 inches in diameter in Harvard that fell onto a house.
July 2019Thunderstorm WindHarvard-A 60 MPH wind gust was measured by a mesonet station located in Harvard.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindHarvard-Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH and were accompanied by dime size hail.
May 2013Heavy RainHarvard-A storm total rainfall amount of 3.76 inches was reported by a Nebraska Rainfall Assessment and Information Network Observer.
August 2013Heavy RainHarvard-A 12 hour total of 3.08 inches fell through 7 am CDT. This report was from the Nebraska Rainfall Assessment and Information Network (NERAIN).
June 2009Thunderstorm WindHarvard-Winds estimated at 60 mph.
June 2024HailHarvard-no account filed
April 2023HailHarvard-no account filed
July 2023HailHarvard-no account filed
August 2020HailHarvard-no account filed
October 2020HailHarvard-no account filed
June 2019HailHarvard-no account filed
May 2018Thunderstorm WindHarvard-no account filed
April 2016HailHarvard-no account filed
May 2016HailHarvard-no account filed
May 2016HailHarvard-no account filed
August 2013HailHarvard-no account filed
May 2011HailHarvard-no account filed
May 2011HailHarvard-no account filed
April 2009HailHarvard-no account filed
June 2005HailHarvard-no account filed
June 2003HailHarvard-no account filed
June 1998HailHarvard-no account filed
May 1996HailHarvard-no account filed
July 1995HailHarvard-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Clay 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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Inland6.8 miles12
Eldorado7.0 miles15
Clay Center7.1 miles12
Verona8.3 miles15
Saronville8.5 miles15
Trumbull10.2 miles12
Glenvil11.4 miles13
Anan11.5 miles11

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 HarvardAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q961214The 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 829840. 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.