Tobias, Nebraska
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Olive precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 68453. The Survey maps it on the Tobias quadrangle. 114 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,601 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresTobias grew from 106 to 114 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 | 106 | |
| 2020 | 114 | +8 (+8%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 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.
- 1955 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1957 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Tobias quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Fairbury quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
16 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 16 fires within 5 miles of Tobias between 2006 and 2020, burning about 307 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 | 5 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 September 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 10 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 25 April 2020 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 2 April 2011 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 11 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 250 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 31 March 2014 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 26 March 2014 | Debris and open burning | 12 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 18 March 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 4.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 11 March 2011 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
46 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Tobias in 46 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 31 hail, 13 thunderstorm wind, 2 funnel cloud. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tobias | - | Emergency management report of trees and power lines down. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tobias | - | Emergency manager reported moderate tree damage and power lines down. |
| June 2022 | Hail | Tobias | - | Public reported 2 inch hail. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tobias | - | Public reported damage to trees, crops, and an older shed. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tobias | - | Public reported large tree limbs blown down across down. |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tobias | - | Seven miles north of Tobias, doors were ripped off of a shed, and another shed was destroyed with the tin thrown 1/4 mile away from the shed. A tree was also split from damaging winds. |
| May 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tobias | - | Winds estimated to 70 mph downed several power poles. |
| June 2010 | Hail | Tobias | - | Hail up to golf ball-size was reported near Tobias. |
| June 2009 | Hail | Tobias | - | A prolonged period of hail entered Saline county near Tobias and proceeded through Swanton and De Witt where it caused considerable crop damage. The hail covered the ground white and was a large as quarter-size in the Tobias area. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tobias | - | A decaying thunderstorm flattened corn in the Tobias area. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tobias | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts from a decaying thunderstorm were estimated at around 60 mph. The winds blew down a few tree branches up to a couple of inches in diameter. |
| May 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tobias | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at over 60 mph flipped 2 campers near Swan Lake and blew shingles and an antenna off of a roof in the area. |
| July 2008 | Hail | Tobias | - | Hail up to nickel-size was reported. |
| July 2008 | Hail | Tobias | - | The hail caused some crop damage in the area. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tobias | - | A spotter estimated thunderstorm winds reached 70 mph in Tobias. The strong winds blew the steeple off of a church 3 miles southeast of town. |
| July 2008 | Hail | Tobias | - | Hail up to quarter-size fell in the Tobias area for about 20 minutes. The hail was accompanied by very heavy rain with around 2 inches reported in an hour or so. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tobias | - | A spotter measured a thunderstorm wind gust of 68 mph which caused some tree damage in the area. |
| June 2006 | Hail | Tobias | - | Hail up to golfball size fell in Tobias for a few minutes. |
| July 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tobias | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 70 mph caused tree and power line damage around Tobias. Arching electrical charges from power lines caused a small grass fire which spread to an abandoned shed and destroyed it. |
| May 2004 | Funnel Cloud | Tobias | - | Reported by law enforcement. |
| May 2004 | Hail | Tobias | - | Hail up to 3 inches in diameter fell from just southwest of Tobias into town. |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tobias | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 60 to 70 mph downed several trees in Tobias. |
| May 2001 | Hail | Tobias | - | A slow moving supercell thunderstorm dropped golfball size hail around the Tobias area. Storm chasers also reported strong rotation and a brief funnel with this storm. |
| June 2018 | Funnel Cloud | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| October 2016 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| October 2016 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| October 2016 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| May 2015 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| April 2009 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| November 2005 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| September 2002 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| September 2001 | Hail | Tobias | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Tobias | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Western | 7.5 miles | 10 | |
| Swanton | 13.9 miles | 10 | |
| Friend | 16.5 miles | 10 | |
| Pleasant Hill | 17.8 miles | 14 | |
| Dorchester | 19.7 miles | 14 | |
| Wilber | 20.4 miles | 11 | |
| De Witt | 22.0 miles | 11 | |
| Shestak | 22.3 miles | 15 |
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 Tobias | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2883112 | 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 834126. 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.




