Thompson, Nebraska

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Buckley precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 68352. It stands on Buckley Creek. The Survey maps it on the Reynolds quadrangle.

Thompson within Jefferson County

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 11 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.

1955 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
1957 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000
1960 USGS Reynolds quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1985 USGS Fairbury quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

Fires near this place

26 since 2014

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 26 fires within 5 miles of Thompson between 2014 and 2020, burning about 374 acres in total. 2 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	18
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Natural	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
Recreation and ceremony	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
10 August 2014	Natural	under an acre	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
22 July 2014	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
5 June 2020	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
27 April 2014	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
25 April 2014	Natural	2.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
11 April 2020	Debris and open burning	5.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
10 April 2014	Debris and open burning	17 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
7 March 2015	Debris and open burning	20 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Jefferson County

Storms near this place

15 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Thompson in 15 storm reports between 2001 and 2025: 9 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. 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
August 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Thompson	$29,810	A severe wind event struck Jefferson County, Nebraska, during the morning of August 10th, 2025, impacting the area along a swath that extended from the southwest to the northeast portion of the county. The limited measured reports indicated gusts up to 65 miles per hour in Plymouth and 62 miles per hour 6 miles west-northwest of Fairbury. However, damage reports suggested pockets of much more intense winds occurred across the county.\|\|The highest estimated wind speed was 95 miles per hour 4 miles west of Endicott, reported by Law Enforcement, which resulted in a power pole down and a corresponding power outage. Further east, an estimated 90 miles per hour gust caused significant damage to a large grain bin 2 miles west-southwest of Plymouth. Given these impacts to public utility and agricultural infrastructure, the damage cost estimated for public infrastructure was $29,813.00. This relatively lower figure indicates that while severe, the core damage was highly localized, and this estimate only covers damage to public assets, not private property losses.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Thompson	-	Trees branches were blown down and a corn field was flattened.
May 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Thompson	-	A tree was reported down across a road 5 miles east of Reynolds.
June 2015	Hail	Thompson	-	The hail lasted for 10 minutes.
May 2013	Hail	Thompson	-	Hail lasted for 20 minutes.
May 2013	Hail	Thompson	-	Hail up to half-dollar size fell south of Fairbury. Some of the hail was still on the ground that next morning.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Thompson	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts were measured at a mesonet site just southwest of Fairbury at 62 mph at 656 pm CDT and at 65 mph at 716 pm. The strong winds blew a semi off the road on Highway 8 southwest of Fairbury and did considerable tree damage, mainly south of town. The fallen trees damaged power poles and transformers, mainly south of Fairbury but also into that town. Power was knocked out to many people across the area.
September 2010	Hail	Thompson	-	Hail up to 1 inch in diameter covered the ground up to a depth of 8 inches south of Fairbury.
September 2010	Tornado (EF0)	Thompson	-	A small, brief tornado was observed by emergency management about 1 mile south of Thompson or about 5 miles or so southwest of Fairbury. The width of the damage path was about 50 yards and the length was about 1/4 mile. Damage was mainly to crops.
April 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Thompson	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts of 60 to 80 mph were estimated by the Emergency Manager just north of Thompson. Hail up to golf ball size accompanied the wind.
May 2018	Hail	Thompson	-	no account filed
October 2018	Hail	Thompson	-	no account filed
June 2015	Hail	Thompson	-	no account filed
May 2002	Hail	Thompson	-	no account filed
April 2001	Hail	Thompson	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Jefferson 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Reynolds	4.1 miles	11
Fairbury	6.3 miles	11
Gladstone	6.8 miles	10
Endicott	8.6 miles	10
Hedrix	9.5 miles	11
Powell	10.6 miles	10
Rudy	10.8 miles	10
Meridian (historical)	11.7 miles	10

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 Thompson	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q18394258	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 834090. 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.