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Orleans, Nebraska

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1896 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Orleans Township. It lies in ZIP code area 68966. It stands on Milrose Creek. The Survey maps it on the Orleans quadrangle. 341 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,011 feet above sea level.

Research this city

Orleans within Harlan County

On record in Orleans

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 3 records

Population over time

2 figures

Orleans fell from 386 to 341 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
2010386
2020341-45 (-12%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 13 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

23 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 23 fires within 5 miles of Orleans between 2007 and 2019, burning about 136 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
Debris and open burning8
Equipment and vehicle use5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Power generation/transmission/distribution3
Natural1
Recreation and ceremony1
Railroad operations and maintenance1

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
7 September 2013Equipment and vehicle use30 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
7 September 2007Power generation/transmission/distribution30 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
1 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
9 August 2016Debris and open burning3.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
9 August 2016Debris and open burning4.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
25 August 2013Power generation/transmission/distribution1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
1 July 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
6 June 2008Railroad operations and maintenance1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Harlan County

Storms near this place

54 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Orleans in 54 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 35 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 4 heavy rain, 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 2018Thunderstorm WindOrleans$350,000The emergency manager reported damage to a farmstead near this mesonet site. Damage included blown down power poles, building damage, uprooted trees, overturned pivots, windows blown out of a home and vehicles.
August 1996Thunderstorm WindOrleans$230,000no account filed
July 2000HailOrleans$150,000no account filed
June 2018HailOrleans$100,000Tennis ball to baseball size hail was reported.
May 2004HailOrleans$100,000no account filed
May 2014HailOrleans$50,000no account filed
August 1999Thunderstorm WindOrleans$50,000no account filed
August 2021Thunderstorm WindOrleans$25,000Tree damage was reported on the north side of town. Wind gusts estimate based on nearby mesonet measurement.
June 2011HailOrleans$25,000no account filed
June 2012Thunderstorm WindOrleans$15,000Wind gusts estimated at 60 mph resulted in downed trees along with power outages.
June 2002HailOrleans$10,000no account filed
August 1996HailOrleans$10,000no account filed
May 2008HailOrleans$2,000no account filed
April 2024Thunderstorm WindOrleans-A wind gust of 65 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located three miles north-northwest of Alma.
May 2024Thunderstorm WindOrleans-A wind gust of 59 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located six miles west of Huntley.
April 2022Tornado (EFU)Orleans-This tornado briefly touched down a few miles southwest of Orleans. Location and time was approximated from social media photos and radar. No damage was reported.
August 2021Heavy RainOrleans-A CoCoRaHS observer measured 6.22 of rain between 5 p.m. and midnight CDT.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindOrleans-A wind gust of 63 MPH was recorded by a mesonet station located six miles northwest of Orleans.
August 2020HailOrleans-Hail ranging in size from quarters to golf balls was reported along this path.
June 2019Flash FloodOrleans-Up to one foot of water was flowing across a low spot on Highway 136. Highway was closed until the flood waters receded. Low spots in some county gravel roads nearby were also washed out and/or had water flowing over them. An NeRAIN observer in Alma measured a 24-hour rain total of 3.13, most of which fell between 1-3 p.m. CDT on the 18th.
June 2018Heavy RainOrleans-A storm total rainfall amount of 3.70 inches three miles northeast of Stamford, 3.48 inches occurred two miles east of Stamford, 3.25 inches occurred 3 miles north of Alma, 3.02 inches occurred in Orleans.
September 2016Thunderstorm WindOrleans-Penny size hail accompanied the winds.
October 2011Heavy RainOrleans-Total rainfall over the past 24 hours of 3.70 inches was reported.
October 2011Heavy RainOrleans-Total rainfall over the past 24 hours of 3.81 inches was reported by a Nebraska Rainfall Assessment and Information Network observer.
May 2010HailOrleans-Hail was accompanied by wind gusts estimated between 55 and 60 mph.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindOrleans-Wind gusts estimated at 60 mph.
May 2004Tornado (F0)Orleans-A brief tornado was reported north of Orleans
May 2023HailOrleans-no account filed
May 2023HailOrleans-no account filed
May 2023HailOrleans-no account filed
April 2022HailOrleans-no account filed
May 2022HailOrleans-no account filed
May 2019HailOrleans-no account filed
September 2019HailOrleans-no account filed
May 2012HailOrleans-no account filed
June 2012HailOrleans-no account filed
September 2012HailOrleans-no account filed
June 2011HailOrleans-no account filed
May 2010HailOrleans-no account filed
June 2010HailOrleans-no account filed
June 2010HailOrleans-no account filed
September 2010HailOrleans-no account filed
June 2010HailOrleans-no account filed
June 2010Thunderstorm WindOrleans-no account filed
June 2007HailOrleans-no account filed
April 2006HailOrleans-no account filed
June 2005HailOrleans-no account filed
June 2005HailOrleans-no account filed
May 2005HailOrleans-no account filed
June 2005HailOrleans-no account filed
May 2002HailOrleans-no account filed
June 2002HailOrleans-no account filed
August 2001Thunderstorm WindOrleans-no account filed
June 2000HailOrleans-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Harlan 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
Flynn Junction3.2 miles13
Alma5.4 miles13
Stamford7.3 miles13
Huntley10.3 miles13
Mascot10.5 miles14
Oxford Junction10.5 miles13
Republican City12.6 miles13
Ragan15.3 miles13

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 OrleansAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2105387The 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 831897. 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.