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Richland, Nebraska

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1899 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Richland precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 68601. The Survey maps it on the Richland quadrangle. 70 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,401 feet above sea level.

Richland within Colfax County

Population over time

2 figures

Richland fell from 73 to 70 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
201073
202070-3 (-4%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 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

13 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Richland between 2007 and 2018, burning about 39 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 burning6
Smoking2
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Equipment and vehicle use1
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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 2009Debris and open burning1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
4 July 2007Smokingunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
27 May 2018Debris and open burning2.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
21 May 2007Railroad operations and maintenance20 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
11 May 2009Railroad operations and maintenance1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
7 April 2010Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
27 April 2018Equipment and vehicle use5.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
12 April 2010Debris and open burningunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named

Every fire recorded in Colfax County

Storms near this place

25 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Richland in 25 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 13 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 4 tornado, 2 flash flood. 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
August 2017Flash FloodRichland$50,000Flash flooding occurred along Highway 30 near Richland and along Highway 15 near Schuyler.
August 2017Flash FloodRichland$50,000Highway 15 was closed near the Platte River Bridge along with several county roads.
May 1996Thunderstorm WindRichland$50,000no account filed
May 2025HailRichland-Public report of hail measured up to 1.75 in diameter.
May 2025HailRichland-Public report of hail estimated up to 1 in diameter.
May 2025HailRichland-Public report of hail estimated up to 1.25 in diameter. Report received via mPING.
May 2024Tornado (EF0)Richland-This tornado touched down on a farmstead 200 yards west of Road 6 about a quarter-mile south of Road H. Here, the roof was blown off of a farm outbuilding. As it moved northeast and crossed Road 6, the wind caused a wooden power pole to lean about 45 degrees from the ground. The tornado then continued to another farmstead on the south side of Road H, a quarter-mile east of Road 6. Here, an empty grain silo was pushed over. The tornado then dissipated just short of crossing Road H. Peak winds in this tornado were estimated at 82 miles per hour, with a max width of 50 yards and an estimated mean width at 40 yards.
May 2024Thunderstorm WindRichland-This is a continuation of the swath of straight-line damaging winds from southern Platte County. Across much of Colfax County, widespread tree damage and overturned center pivots were observed. The most intense damage was focused along a corridor along and just north of US Highway 30. 1 miles east-northeast of Richland, Nebraska, the Colfax County Emergency Manager reported numerous outbuildings with their roofs blown off including a machine shed and 2 hog units. Peak wind gusts in the county were estimated at 95 miles per hour. This was determined from significant damage to large trees on Road G between Road 4 and Road 5. A trained spotter also recorded a wind gust of 79 miles per hour in Howells, Nebraska.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindRichland-Public report from mping of 1-inch tree limbs broken; shingles blown off.
August 2020HailRichland-Public reported 1.5 inch hail via social media.
September 2017HailRichland-Hail up to golfball size fell north of Richland. Crops and tree leaves were stripped due to the large hail.
June 2009HailRichland-The ground was covered in hail up to golf ball-size.
July 2008HailRichland-The hail fell near the Platte/Colfax county line and was jagged shaped.
August 2007Tornado (EF0)Richland-A tornado was first reported by emergency management and then verified by a NWS storm survey and later by video from a storm chaser. The tornado caused sporadic tree and crop damage from 3 1/2 miles south of Richland, on the north bank of the Platte River where it first touched down, to around 4 miles east of Richland.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindRichland-Thunderstorm winds estimated at 60 mph downed several tree limbs 3 inches and larger in diameter.
March 2006Tornado (F0)Richland-Emergency management reported a relatively brief tornado touchdown just southeast of Richland. The tornado took the shingles off of a roof and did some tree damage as it traveled around 1/2 mile. The tornado was from the same cell that produced a brief tornado west of Bellwood in Butler county a few minutes earlier.
September 2005Thunderstorm WindRichland-Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 60 mph downed some tree limbs north of Richland. The winds were accompanied by hail around 3/4 of an inch in diameter.
September 2005HailRichland-From the second storm within an hour to move across this area. The hail was accompanied by wind gusts estimated at 60 mph.
June 1998Tornado (F1)Richland-Two tornados reported.
July 1994Thunderstorm WindRichland-Power lines were blown down at Clarkson and Schuyler. Trees were blown down across most of the county with heavy tree damage and debris at Richland. Scattered crop damage was also reported.
June 2018HailRichland-no account filed
September 2005HailRichland-no account filed
April 2004HailRichland-no account filed
September 2003HailRichland-no account filed
April 2002HailRichland-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Colfax 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
Sunset Acres7.1 miles11
Schuyler8.2 miles11
Rogers15.9 miles11
Heun16.2 miles8
Leigh18.7 miles8
Clarkson20.6 miles8
Howells22.9 miles8
Olean25.1 miles8

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 RichlandAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2049364The 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 832542. 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.