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.
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
- Harvard Carnegie Librarylisted 2022
Population over time
2 figuresHarvard 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1,013 | |
| 2020 | 951 | -62 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 12 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.
- 1898 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1955 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Harvard quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
11 since 2002Regional 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/undetermined | 4 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Rainwater Basin Wetland Management District | HARVARD |
| 1 August 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Rainwater Basin Wetland Management District | LANGE SE |
| 25 June 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.1 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 7 May 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 7 April 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 55 acres | Rainwater Basin Wetland Management District | WINDY HARVARD |
| 12 April 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 13 March 2008 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Rainwater Basin Wetland Management District | BUNKER |
| 10 March 2018 | Debris and open burning | 6.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
45 since 1995Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | $200,000 | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | $100,000 | A 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 2014 | Hail | Harvard | $100,000 | no account filed |
| October 2014 | Hail | Harvard | $100,000 | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Harvard | $50,000 | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | $50,000 | no account filed |
| August 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | $25,000 | no account filed |
| August 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | $25,000 | no account filed |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | $15,000 | Wind gusts estimated to be near 70 MPH resulted in a few broken power poles along Highway 6. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Harvard | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Harvard | $10,000 | no account filed |
| April 2009 | Hail | Harvard | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Harvard | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Hail | Harvard | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | $2,000 | no account filed |
| June 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | - | A wind gust of 58 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located two miles southeast of Harvard. |
| April 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | - | 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 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | - | A wind gust of 59 MPH was recorded by a Nebraska Mesonet station located four miles southwest of Harvard. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | - | A wind gust of 66 MPH was recorded by a mesonet station in Harvard. Power outages were reported in town. |
| October 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | - | A wind gust of 60 MPH was recorded by a mesonet station located 4 miles southwest of Harvard. |
| June 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | - | 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 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | - | A 60 MPH wind gust was measured by a mesonet station located in Harvard. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | - | Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH and were accompanied by dime size hail. |
| May 2013 | Heavy Rain | Harvard | - | A storm total rainfall amount of 3.76 inches was reported by a Nebraska Rainfall Assessment and Information Network Observer. |
| August 2013 | Heavy Rain | Harvard | - | 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 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | - | Winds estimated at 60 mph. |
| June 2024 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| April 2023 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| July 2023 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| August 2020 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| October 2020 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| June 2019 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| April 2016 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| August 2013 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| April 2009 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Hail | Harvard | - | no account filed |
| July 1995 | Hail | Harvard | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inland | 6.8 miles | 12 | |
| Eldorado | 7.0 miles | 15 | |
| Clay Center | 7.1 miles | 12 | |
| Verona | 8.3 miles | 15 | |
| Saronville | 8.5 miles | 15 | |
| Trumbull | 10.2 miles | 12 | |
| Glenvil | 11.4 miles | 13 | |
| Anan | 11.5 miles | 11 |
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 Harvard | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q961214 | 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 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.





