Spencer, Nebraska
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1952 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Spencer Township. It lies in ZIP code area 68777. The Survey maps it on the Spencer South quadrangle. 408 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,686 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresSpencer fell from 455 to 408 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 | 455 | |
| 2020 | 408 | -47 (-10%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 10 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.
- 1952 USGS Spencer South quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS O'Neill quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS O'Neill quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1969 USGS O'Neill quadrangle1:250000
- 1986 USGS Atkinson quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1989 USGS O'Neill quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
12 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Spencer between 2007 and 2015, burning about 386 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 burning | 6 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Fireworks | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 July 2012 | Fireworks | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 3 July 2011 | Fireworks | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 22 July 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 21 July 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 75 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 1 July 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 22 June 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 6.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 23 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 21 April 2009 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
40 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Spencer in 40 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 30 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2010 | Flood | Spencer | $75,000 | Thunderstorms with prolonged rain falling on already saturated ground caused widespread minor flooding along Ponca Creek in Boyd County. Power poles toppled due to errosion along the river bank. In addition, numerous rural roads were damaged due to the rain and flooding. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Spencer | $50,000 | Severe storms with winds estimated at 70 MPH severely damaged two barns at a farmstead northeast of Spencer. In addition, a grain bin was destroyed as well as a grain auger along with numerous large tree branches being broken. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Spencer | $50,000 | Hail ranging from nickel to golf ball size accumulated to 4 to 5 inches deep. Snowplows were needed to clear the roads. |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Spencer | $50,000 | A thunderstorm producing large hail of unknown sized destroyed crops north of Spencer and north of Lynch. Damaging wind destroyed a shed and blew over a windmill. Extensive damage was sustained by trees and the wind bent a metal flagpole until it was parallel with the ground. |
| July 2002 | Hail | Spencer | $15,000 | Hail ranged from nickel to golfball size. |
| July 1999 | Hail | Spencer | $10,000 | Softball sized hail did extensive damage to area crops. |
| May 2002 | Hail | Spencer | $8,000 | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Spencer | $4,000 | Damaging thunderstorm wind overturned a semi-trailer rig. The wind caused extensive tree damage along the path of the storm. |
| May 2004 | Hail | Spencer | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Hail | Spencer | - | Delayed report with time estimated from radar. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Spencer | - | Received a report of 60 mph wind gust. |
| July 2019 | Hail | Spencer | - | Law enforcement reported quarter size hail. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Spencer | - | Report of large branches down. |
| July 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Spencer | - | Public reported a large tree branch down, estimating wind gusts to 60 mph near Spencer. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Spencer | - | Public reported a large pine tree snapped in half approximately 10 to 15 feet off the ground, at the national cemetery west of Spencer. A picture was provided via social media. |
| July 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Spencer | - | Power poles and trees were broken as winds from a bow echo slammed into the area. A semi tractor trailer was blown into a greenhouse in Spencer. The storm also moved across Holt, Rock, Brown, Keya Paha, and Cherry counties. |
| August 1997 | Hail | Spencer | - | Hail ranging in size from marbles to tennis balls battered crops and grassland in the area. |
| July 2024 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| August 2022 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| June 2020 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| September 2019 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| September 2019 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| June 2017 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| August 2008 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| April 2004 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| April 2004 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| September 2001 | Hail | Spencer | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Hail | Spencer | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rosedale (historical) | 6.3 miles | 9 | |
| Bristow | 6.6 miles | 11 | |
| Baker (historical) | 8.1 miles | 9 | |
| Butte | 8.2 miles | 9 | |
| Gross | 8.5 miles | 9 | |
| Anoka | 8.5 miles | 9 | |
| Lynch | 12.8 miles | 11 | |
| Monowi | 19.9 miles | 11 |
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 Spencer | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3287888 | 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 833647. 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.





