Roca, Nebraska
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Saltillo precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 68430. It stands on Hickman Branch. The Survey maps it on the Roca quadrangle. 201 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,286 feet above sea level.
On record in Roca
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
William H. Charlton Houselisted 1997
Population over time
2 figuresRoca fell from 220 to 201 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 | 220 | |
| 2020 | 201 | -19 (-9%) |
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.
- 1897 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1955 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1957 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS Roca quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1986 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
45 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 45 fires within 5 miles of Roca between 2001 and 2020, burning about 120 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were 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 | 26 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
| Fireworks | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 9 August 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 5 August 2012 | Debris and open burning | 12 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 29 August 2012 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 27 August 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 20 August 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 24 July 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 21 July 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
24 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Roca in 24 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 11 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 5 flash flood, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2015 | Flood | Roca | $100,000,000 | Record rainfall of 5 to 10 inches fell across Lancaster County, and the Salt Creek basin on the evening of the 6th into the early morning of the 7th. This led to significant flooding along the creek, from near Roca north through the Lincoln metro area. The flooding resulted in numerous road closures, water rescues and some mandatory evacuations. The flooding was largely contained within the levy system within the city of Lincoln, but many parks and low-lined areas were flooded. |
| June 2015 | Flash Flood | Roca | $20,000 | Flash flooding was reported in the city part in Hickman. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Roca | - | Personal weather station measured wind gust of 60 mph along the outflow boundary of a thunderstorm. |
| October 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Roca | - | The office received a public report of tree limbs broken 1 mile northwest of Hickman, Nebraska. |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Roca | - | Public reported roof blown off of a 3 walled shed. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Roca | - | Public reported 1 foot diameter tree limbs blown down. |
| July 2020 | Flash Flood | Roca | - | Public reported section of Hickman Road just west of Hickman closed to through traffic due to flooding. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Roca | - | Trained spotter reported damage to a fireworks tent in Hickman as well as several broken tree limbs. |
| July 2020 | Flash Flood | Roca | - | Public reported water flowing over Hickman Road near 54th St. Photo and info sent in via social media. |
| October 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Roca | - | Public via social media reported a couple of large trees down east of Roca. |
| June 2020 | Flash Flood | Roca | - | Lancaster emergency management reported minor street flooding in Hickman. Also noted the town had received 4.5 inches of rain. |
| June 2020 | Flash Flood | Roca | - | Lancaster emergency management reported water cresting at a roadway. |
| August 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Roca | - | The public estimated thunderstorm wind gusts were around 60 mph. |
| June 2001 | Hail | Roca | - | Reported by cooperative observer. |
| July 2000 | Hail | Roca | - | Reported by cooperative observer. |
| October 2016 | Hail | Roca | - | no account filed |
| May 2015 | Hail | Roca | - | no account filed |
| August 2014 | Hail | Roca | - | no account filed |
| May 2001 | Hail | Roca | - | no account filed |
| May 2001 | Hail | Roca | - | no account filed |
| April 1999 | Hail | Roca | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Roca | - | no account filed |
| August 1997 | Hail | Roca | - | no account filed |
| April 1995 | Hail | Roca | - | 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.
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 Roca | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2052169 | 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 832626. 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.





