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Sumner, Nebraska

16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1896 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Wood River precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 68878. The Survey maps it on the Sumner quadrangle. 252 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,365 feet above sea level.

Sumner within Dawson County

Population over time

2 figures

Sumner grew from 236 to 252 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
2010236
2020252+16 (+7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 16 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

6 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Sumner between 2006 and 2017, burning about 68 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
Equipment and vehicle use3
Debris and open burning2
Natural1

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
8 September 2017Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
25 September 2011Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
13 August 2017Debris and open burning1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
30 March 2006Natural45 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
22 March 2010Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
21 March 2012Debris and open burning20 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Dawson County

Storms near this place

29 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sumner in 29 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 12 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2018Flash FloodSumner$150,000Heavy rain fell across the warned area, and while actual ground-truth reports were only in the 3 to 5 inch range, radar estimation and unofficial reports exceeded 6 inches in east-central Dawson County. Emergency management reported that several rural roads and at least 2 homes were affected by water. The most significant report came from a home approximately 7 miles north-northwest of Overton. This home is located at the convergence point of a couple of drainage paths, and the heavy rainfall resulted in every room having at least 2 feet of water inside. All of the appliances and furniture were destroyed, and the interior will have to be completely redone once it's dried out.
August 2014Thunderstorm WindSumner$100,000Wind gusts were estimated to be near 70 MPH. Crop and tree damage was reported in the area.
October 1998Tornado (F0)Sumner$100,000no account filed
July 2011Thunderstorm WindSumner$25,000Wind gusts were estimated at 65 MPH, with an outbuilding losing part of its roof. Crop damage was also reported in the area.
May 2004HailSumner$5,000no account filed
September 2016HailSumner$2,000Highway 40 was covered in hail.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindSumner-A wind gust of 68 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located four miles southeast of Eddyville.
April 2024Thunderstorm WindSumner-A wind gust of 60 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located four miles north-northwest of Sumner.
April 2024Thunderstorm WindSumner-A wind gust of 63 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located one mile south-southwest of Sumner.
June 2024Thunderstorm WindSumner-A wind gust of 58 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located four miles north-northwest of Sumner.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindSumner-A wind gust of 59 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located four miles north-northwest of Sumner.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindSumner-A wind gust of 65 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located four miles southeast of Eddyville.
May 2023Thunderstorm WindSumner-A wind gust of 62 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located four miles north-northwest of Sumner.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindSumner-A wind gust of 59 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located four miles north-northwest of Sumner.
July 2018Heavy RainSumner-A storm total rainfall amount of 4.30 inches was recorded by a mesonet site located 2 miles west of Miller.
September 2016Heavy RainSumner-Rainfall total from the past 24 hours was 3.75 inches.
May 2015HailSumner-Penny to nickel size hail was reported.
April 2013HailSumner-No funnels were visible to the spotter.
May 2004Tornado (F0)Sumner-A brief tornado was reported southwest of Sumner in Dawson county. The tornado occurred in open country.
July 2024HailSumner-no account filed
July 2024HailSumner-no account filed
June 2022HailSumner-no account filed
April 2021HailSumner-no account filed
June 2020HailSumner-no account filed
August 2017HailSumner-no account filed
July 2017Thunderstorm WindSumner-no account filed
May 2016HailSumner-no account filed
June 2006Thunderstorm WindSumner-no account filed
May 2001HailSumner-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Dawson 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
Eddyville7.6 miles10
Overton14.7 miles17
Josselyn15.2 miles17
Trued15.5 miles15
Lexington17.1 miles17
Buffalo17.7 miles16
Darr21.9 miles16
Cozad26.3 miles16

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 SumnerAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2181120The 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 837270. 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.