Smithfield, Nebraska
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1896 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Harrison precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 68976. The Survey maps it on the Bertrand quadrangle. 60 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,546 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresSmithfield grew from 54 to 60 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 | 54 | |
| 2020 | 60 | +6 (+11%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 16 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 Lexington quadrangle1:125000
- 1899 USGS Lexington quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
- 1955 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Grand Island quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS Bertrand quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Kearney quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
11 since 2008Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Smithfield between 2008 and 2020, burning about 320 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 burning | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Natural | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 September 2008 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 24 September 2008 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 22 September 2008 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 2 June 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 7 April 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 26 April 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 6 March 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 76 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 12 March 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
37 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Smithfield in 37 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 22 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 2 funnel cloud, 2 heavy rain. 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 1996 | Lightning | Smithfield | $500,000 | no account filed |
| June 2018 | Hail | Smithfield | $250,000 | Satellite imagery reveals a swath of what was presumably at least golf ball size hail and likely up to baseball size hail that stretched from extreme southeastern Gosper County to central Phelps County on the afternoon of June 30th. The path was about 2 to 3 miles wide. |
| August 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Smithfield | $100,000 | Report of a flipped irrigation pivot relayed from social media via broadcast media. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Smithfield | $100,000 | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Hail | Smithfield | $100,000 | no account filed |
| May 2023 | Hail | Smithfield | $50,000 | no account filed |
| July 2019 | Flash Flood | Smithfield | $25,000 | Radar estimates showed rainfall amounts of 3 to 6 inches fell over the warned area in a short amount of time, with up to 5 inches measured in Bertrand. Emergency management reported that flash flooding occurred in Bertrand and the surrounding areas, including the headwaters area of the Turkey Creek north of Edison, which resulted in a rise above minor flood stage during the daytime hours on the 5th. |
| May 2023 | Hail | Smithfield | $25,000 | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Smithfield | $15,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Smithfield | $15,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Smithfield | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Smithfield | $1,000 | There was a downed power line with an adjacent tree on fire as a result. One inch diameter hail also fell. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Smithfield | $1,000 | There was a downed power line with an adjacent tree on fire as a result. One inch diameter hail also fell. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Smithfield | - | A wind gust of 71 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located three miles northeast of Smithfield. A report via social media noted tree limbs as large as 4 to 6 inches in diameter downed in the Bertrand area. |
| May 2011 | Heavy Rain | Smithfield | - | Storm total rainfall of 3.41 inches reported over last 24 hours by a NeRAIN observer. |
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Smithfield | - | Wind gusts were estimated at 65 MPH. |
| June 2008 | Tornado (EF0) | Smithfield | - | A brief tornado touchdown was reported. This tornado did not cause any damage as it occurred in open country. |
| May 2008 | Tornado (EF0) | Smithfield | - | Trained spotters reported a tornado that started in northeast Gosper County and moved into northwest Phelps County. This tornado was in open country and caused no damage. |
| March 2024 | Hail | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| March 2024 | Hail | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| May 2024 | Hail | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| July 2021 | Hail | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| June 2020 | Hail | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| October 2017 | Hail | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| April 2013 | Hail | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| August 2010 | Hail | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Heavy Rain | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Hail | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Funnel Cloud | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Funnel Cloud | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Smithfield | - | no account filed |
| August 1998 | Hail | Smithfield | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elwood | 6.4 miles | 17 | |
| Devils Gap | 6.9 miles | 17 |
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 Smithfield | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2331533 | 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 833509. 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.






