Ulysses, Nebraska
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1899 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Ulysses Township. It lies in ZIP code area 68669. It stands on North Branch Big Blue River. The Survey maps it on the Ulysses quadrangle. 196 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,526 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresUlysses grew from 171 to 196 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 | 171 | |
| 2020 | 196 | +25 (+15%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 11 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.
- 1899 USGS David City quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS Ulysses quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS David City quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
11 since 2013Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Ulysses between 2013 and 2020, burning about 6 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 |
|---|---|
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 July 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 31 May 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 5 April 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 3 April 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 10 March 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 1 March 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 17 February 2013 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 9 November 2019 | 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
12 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ulysses in 12 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 7 hail, 2 tornado, 1 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 | Ulysses | $6,000 | Rainfall of 2 to 4 inches on 6/20 caused flooding along the Big Blue River from near Surprise to near Ulysses. The river at Surprise crested at close to 8 feet in the afternoon of 6/21, flood stage is 7 feet. The river was above flood stage at Surprise from the morning until the evening of 6/21. The flooding affected mainly farmland near the river but a few county roads were also flooded. |
| April 2026 | Hail | Ulysses | - | Public report of hail estimated at 1.00 inch in diameter. |
| April 2024 | Hail | Ulysses | - | The Butler County Emergency Manager reported golf ball sized hail in downtown Ulysses. |
| June 2017 | Hail | Ulysses | - | One inch hail was relayed by Butler County Emergency Management. |
| May 2012 | Hail | Ulysses | - | A few hail stones around tennis ball-size fell in the Ulysses area. |
| May 2011 | Funnel Cloud | Ulysses | - | A supercell thunderstorm produced a funnel and even a possible tornado touchdown near Surprise. An off-duty NWS meteorologist confirmed the funnel and there were a few unconfirmed reports of a brief tornado near town, but little or no damage was observed. |
| June 2008 | Tornado (EF1) | Ulysses | - | This tornado touched down about 1 1/2 miles west of Ulysses, traveled east across town and then lifted around 2 1/2 miles east of town. The tornado heavily damaged 4 homes west of town and also caused tree and farm outbuilding damage and flipped dozens of center pivots. Power lines were also downed, causing 500 residents to lose power for 24 hours or more. Homes in Ulysses also sustained damage as did the Farmers Cooperative Elevator. This is the second tornado that spun up from a large supercell thunderstorm that moved across the area. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ulysses | - | A downburst or a series of downbursts associated with the supercell thunderstorm that spawned 2 tornadoes in the Ulysses area produced tree and building damage from east of Ulysses through Dwight and Valparaiso (which is in Saunders county). The winds were estimated by an NWS storm survey to be 60 to 80 mph. The tree damage extended east toward Ceresco where the storm spawned 2 more tornadoes. |
| June 2008 | Tornado (EF1) | Ulysses | - | This tornado started about 4 miles southwest of Ulysses in Seward county, crossed into Butler county about 1.5 miles south of Ulysses and then lifted around 1 mile east southeast of town. The tornado flipped irrigation center pivots along its path and caused tree and farm outbuilding damage. It was rated an EF1 in both Seward and Butler counties. The total path length in both counties was a little over 5 miles. |
| May 1995 | Hail | Ulysses | - | Wind damage to trees and building destroyed. |
| June 2014 | Hail | Ulysses | - | no account filed |
| September 1995 | Hail | Ulysses | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surprise | 6.3 miles | 11 | |
| Garrison | 7.5 miles | 11 | |
| Millerton | 7.9 miles | 11 | |
| Dwight | 9.7 miles | 11 | |
| Rising City | 10.1 miles | 11 | |
| Brainard | 13.0 miles | 11 | |
| David City | 13.0 miles | 11 | |
| Loma | 14.3 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 Ulysses | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3288983 | 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 834254. 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.





