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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.

Ulysses within Butler County

Population over time

2 figures

Ulysses 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.

YearPeople Change
2010171
2020196+25 (+15%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 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.

Fires near this place

11 since 2013

Regional 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 use6
Debris and open burning3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2

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
4 July 2013Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
31 May 2014Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
5 April 2013Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
3 April 2013Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
10 March 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
1 March 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
17 February 2013Debris and open burningunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
9 November 2019Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Butler County

Storms near this place

12 since 1995

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2010FloodUlysses$6,000Rainfall 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 2026HailUlysses-Public report of hail estimated at 1.00 inch in diameter.
April 2024HailUlysses-The Butler County Emergency Manager reported golf ball sized hail in downtown Ulysses.
June 2017HailUlysses-One inch hail was relayed by Butler County Emergency Management.
May 2012HailUlysses-A few hail stones around tennis ball-size fell in the Ulysses area.
May 2011Funnel CloudUlysses-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 2008Tornado (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 2008Thunderstorm WindUlysses-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 2008Tornado (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 1995HailUlysses-Wind damage to trees and building destroyed.
June 2014HailUlysses-no account filed
September 1995HailUlysses-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Butler 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
Surprise6.3 miles11
Garrison7.5 miles11
Millerton7.9 miles11
Dwight9.7 miles11
Rising City10.1 miles11
Brainard13.0 miles11
David City13.0 miles11
Loma14.3 miles11

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 UlyssesAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3288983The 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.