BlockBefore

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.

Roca within Lancaster County

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

Population over time

2 figures

Roca 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.

YearPeople Change
2010220
2020201-19 (-9%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 15 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

45 since 2001

Regional 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 burning26
Equipment and vehicle use6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Recreation and ceremony4
Fireworks2
Arson/incendiarism2
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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 2017Debris and open burning1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
9 August 2012Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
5 August 2012Debris and open burning12 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
29 August 2012Misuse of fire by a minor1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
27 August 2012Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
20 August 2013Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
24 July 2017Debris and open burning1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
21 July 2017Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Lancaster County

Storms near this place

24 since 1995

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2015FloodRoca$100,000,000Record 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 2015Flash FloodRoca$20,000Flash flooding was reported in the city part in Hickman.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindRoca-Personal weather station measured wind gust of 60 mph along the outflow boundary of a thunderstorm.
October 2023Thunderstorm WindRoca-The office received a public report of tree limbs broken 1 mile northwest of Hickman, Nebraska.
May 2022Thunderstorm WindRoca-Public reported roof blown off of a 3 walled shed.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindRoca-Public reported 1 foot diameter tree limbs blown down.
July 2020Flash FloodRoca-Public reported section of Hickman Road just west of Hickman closed to through traffic due to flooding.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindRoca-Trained spotter reported damage to a fireworks tent in Hickman as well as several broken tree limbs.
July 2020Flash FloodRoca-Public reported water flowing over Hickman Road near 54th St. Photo and info sent in via social media.
October 2020Thunderstorm WindRoca-Public via social media reported a couple of large trees down east of Roca.
June 2020Flash FloodRoca-Lancaster emergency management reported minor street flooding in Hickman. Also noted the town had received 4.5 inches of rain.
June 2020Flash FloodRoca-Lancaster emergency management reported water cresting at a roadway.
August 2010Thunderstorm WindRoca-The public estimated thunderstorm wind gusts were around 60 mph.
June 2001HailRoca-Reported by cooperative observer.
July 2000HailRoca-Reported by cooperative observer.
October 2016HailRoca-no account filed
May 2015HailRoca-no account filed
August 2014HailRoca-no account filed
May 2001HailRoca-no account filed
May 2001HailRoca-no account filed
April 1999HailRoca-no account filed
June 1998HailRoca-no account filed
August 1997HailRoca-no account filed
April 1995HailRoca-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lancaster 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
Hanlon0.7 miles15
Hickman3.0 miles15
Saltillo3.2 miles15
Jamaica3.3 miles15
Centerville4.5 miles15
Sprague5.1 miles15
Holland5.5 miles14
Martell5.5 miles15

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 RocaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2052169The 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.