Riverdale, Nebraska
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1896 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Precinct 28. It lies in ZIP code area 68870. The Survey maps it on the Riverdale quadrangle. 247 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,182 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresRiverdale grew from 182 to 247 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 | 182 | |
| 2020 | 247 | +65 (+36%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 15 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.
- 1896 USGS Kearney quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
- 1955 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Riverdale quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Kearney quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
What the histories say of this town
406 words1 chapter about Riverdale from the published histories of the county, public domain and reproduced complete.
| Chapter | From | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Buffalo County, Nebraska, and Its People : a Record of Settlement, Org | Buffalo County, Nebraska, and Its People : a Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement (1916) | 406 words |
Fires near this place
47 since 2008Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 47 fires within 5 miles of Riverdale between 2008 and 2019, burning about 91 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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 burning | 18 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 8 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| Fireworks | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 September 2010 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 27 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 25 September 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 5 August 2012 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 3 August 2012 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 24 August 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 5 July 2015 | Fireworks | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 4 July 2012 | Fireworks | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Riverdale: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johnson Sand and Gravel Co | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
29 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Riverdale in 29 storm reports between 1994 and 2023: 18 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 1 heavy rain, 1 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2002 | Hail | Riverdale | $10,000,000 | no account filed |
| March 2019 | Flash Flood | Riverdale | $1,000,000 | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riverdale | $500,000 | Wind gusts were estimated at 80 to 90 MPH, resulting in overturned pivots and knocked down power lines, with power flashes and outages also reported. |
| April 2015 | Hail | Riverdale | $250,000 | no account filed |
| May 2013 | Hail | Riverdale | $75,000 | Ping pong ball to golf ball size hail was reported. |
| September 2015 | Hail | Riverdale | $35,000 | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riverdale | $25,000 | Wind gusts in and around Kearney were estimated to be in the 60 to 70 MPH range. Wind gusts of 61 MPH were recorded by the Kearney Regional Airport AWOS and a mesonet station located 2 miles north-northeast of Kearney. Small tree branches were downed around town, and a large tree limb knocked down power lines and snapped a power pole near the Buffalo County Fairgrounds. Some minor shingle damage was also reported on the northwest side of town. |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riverdale | $25,000 | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Hail | Riverdale | $5,000 | Accompanied by a wind gust measured at 42 mph. |
| June 1998 | Hail | Riverdale | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riverdale | - | A wind gust of 66 MPH was recorded by a mesonet station located one mile north of Riverdale and a gust of 59 MPH was recorded by a mesonet station located two miles south of Riverdale. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riverdale | - | Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riverdale | - | Wind gusts were estimated to be near 65 MPH. |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riverdale | - | Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH. |
| August 2014 | Heavy Rain | Riverdale | - | This 24-hour storm total rainfall was 3.22 inches, with most of the rain falling between 10 pm CDT and 3 am CDT. This report was received via the NERAIN network. |
| May 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riverdale | - | Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH. |
| June 1994 | Hail | Riverdale | - | Thunderstorm winds up to 80 mph caused tree damage at Gibbon. Golf ball-size hail caused crop damage near Riverdale. |
| August 2023 | Hail | Riverdale | - | no account filed |
| August 2023 | Hail | Riverdale | - | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Hail | Riverdale | - | no account filed |
| September 2017 | Hail | Riverdale | - | no account filed |
| September 2015 | Hail | Riverdale | - | no account filed |
| August 2014 | Hail | Riverdale | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Riverdale | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Riverdale | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Riverdale | - | no account filed |
| July 1995 | Hail | Riverdale | - | no account filed |
| June 1994 | Hail | Riverdale | - | no account filed |
| June 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Riverdale | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glenwood Park | 4.8 miles | 20 | |
| Amherst | 5.8 miles | 16 | |
| R-Villa Courts | 6.3 miles | 20 | |
| Alfalfa Center | 6.4 miles | 18 | |
| Kearney | 7.3 miles | 20 | |
| Prairie View Estates | 7.3 miles | 20 | |
| Odessa | 7.6 miles | 16 | |
| Prairie Center | 7.7 miles | 16 |
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 Riverdale | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2516346 | 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 832573. 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.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
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.





