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Merna, Nebraska

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1951 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Kilfoil Township. It lies in ZIP code area 68856. The Survey maps it on the Merna quadrangle. 343 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,664 feet above sea level.

Merna within Custer County

On record in Merna

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 2 records

Population over time

2 figures

Merna fell from 363 to 343 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
2010363
2020343-20 (-6%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 11 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

12 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Merna between 2006 and 2018, burning about 935 acres in total. 1 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
Railroad operations and maintenance5
Debris and open burning2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Natural1
Fireworks1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
5 September 2010Fireworks10 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
15 September 2012Railroad operations and maintenance7.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
3 August 2018Railroad operations and maintenance14 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
2 August 2018Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
4 July 2012Naturalunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
23 April 2009Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
9 March 2012Debris and open burning400 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
20 March 2009Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Custer County

Storms near this place

60 of 67 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Merna in 67 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 48 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 6 flash flood, 2 tornado. 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
June 2010FloodMerna$300,000Thunderstorms with prolonged heavy rain falling on already saturated ground caused widespread flooding through northern and central Custer County. Three to five inches of rain caused water to flow across the Victoria Springs Road, the Callaway Road, and Highway 92 near Merna. The rain produced a sink hole, 4 feet in depth, to form in the road between Merna and Victoria Springs. The south side of the Sargent Diversion Dam collapsed sending a tremendous amount of water to the Comstock Diversion Dam which held the water. Numerous rural roads were also severely damaged.
May 2023LightningMerna$50,000Lightning struck a house, setting it on fire.
July 2001Thunderstorm WindMerna$25,000Off-duty NWS employee reported high winds with large trees down and a grain bin destroyed. A fertilizer and seed plant was also demolished.
June 2007Thunderstorm WindMerna$20,000Two center pivots over-turned and damaged.
May 1999HailMerna$10,000no account filed
May 2019HailMerna$3,000Hail damaged the roof of a greenhouse.
May 2003HailMerna$3,000The jagged hail tore bark off trees.
April 2007HailMerna$1,000no account filed
June 2004HailMerna$1,000no account filed
July 2022HailMerna-Public reported quarter size hail in Merna along with small tree limbs downed and loss of electricity.
April 2021HailMerna-Nickel sized hail was reported just west of Merna.
May 2020Flash FloodMerna-Highway 2 between mile markers 272 and 273 has one lane flooded.
May 2020Flash FloodMerna-Road 433 near Merna is washed out and covered with water.
May 2020HailMerna-Report from social media.
May 2020Thunderstorm WindMerna-A storm chaser measured a 63 MPH wind gust.
June 2020Tornado (EF0)Merna-Brief touchdown with no damage reported.
March 2019FloodMerna-The NDOR web site reported flooding on Highway 92 or about 8 miles west of Merna.
August 2017Flash FloodMerna-Street flooding reported in several locations in Merna.
August 2017Flash FloodMerna-Water over highway 92 10 miles west of Merna.
May 2013Flash FloodMerna-Flood water flowing across the road.
June 2011Flash FloodMerna-Water was reported over the westbound lane on Highway 92 in northwest Custer county.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindMerna-Strong thunderstorm wind gust did damage to trees and field 8 miles west of Merna.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindMerna-The Severe Thunderstorm produced winds of 60 to 70 mph accompanied by hail up to nickel size. This blew siding off of houses and broke windows in Merna, Nebraska.
June 1999Tornado (F0)Merna-The tornado touched down briefly.
June 2024HailMerna-no account filed
July 2024Thunderstorm WindMerna-no account filed
June 2022HailMerna-no account filed
June 2020HailMerna-no account filed
June 2019HailMerna-no account filed
August 2017HailMerna-no account filed
August 2017HailMerna-no account filed
August 2017HailMerna-no account filed
August 2017HailMerna-no account filed
June 2014HailMerna-no account filed
June 2014HailMerna-no account filed
June 2014HailMerna-no account filed
August 2013HailMerna-no account filed
May 2012HailMerna-no account filed
June 2010Thunderstorm WindMerna-no account filed
June 2010HailMerna-no account filed
June 2010HailMerna-no account filed
July 2010HailMerna-no account filed
July 2010HailMerna-no account filed
June 2010HailMerna-no account filed
June 2009HailMerna-no account filed
July 2009HailMerna-no account filed
July 2009HailMerna-no account filed
July 2009HailMerna-no account filed
August 2008Thunderstorm WindMerna-no account filed
July 2007HailMerna-no account filed
July 2007HailMerna-no account filed
May 2007HailMerna-no account filed
April 2005HailMerna-no account filed
May 2005HailMerna-no account filed
March 2004HailMerna-no account filed
June 2003HailMerna-no account filed
June 2002HailMerna-no account filed
July 2002HailMerna-no account filed
May 2000HailMerna-no account filed
July 2000HailMerna-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Custer 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
Dale (historical)4.5 miles11
Broken Bow8.5 miles12
New Helena8.8 miles11
Lillian9.5 miles11
Anselmo10.8 miles11
Gates12.6 miles11
Round Valley14.0 miles11
Walworth15.1 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 MernaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2264075The 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 831232. 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.