Western, Nebraska
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1985. It stands in South Fork precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 68464. The Survey maps it on the Western quadrangle. 227 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,493 feet above sea level.
On record in Western
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 2 records
Rad Saline Center cis. 389 Z. C. B. J.listed 1996
Saline County Banklisted 1990
Population over time
2 figuresWestern fell from 235 to 227 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 | 235 | |
| 2020 | 227 | -8 (-3%) |
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 Western quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Fairbury quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
3 since 2008Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Western between 2008 and 2020, burning about 21 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 | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 March 2008 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 5.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 13 November 2020 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 30 January 2012 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
47 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Western in 47 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 26 hail, 15 thunderstorm wind, 5 tornado, 1 flash flood. The reports record 8 injuries. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2004 | Tornado (F2) | Western | 8 hurt, $20,000,000 | See description below |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Western | $60,000 | Strong winds downed trees. One trees feel onto a pickup truck causing significant damage. A center pivot irrigation system was damaged two miles south of Western. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Western | - | A 62 mph wind gust was measured at a personal weather station. There was another 55 mph wind gust measured at a separate but nearly collocated station at the same time. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Western | - | A 63 miles per hour wind gust was recorded on a personal weather station. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Western | - | A 60 miles per hour wind gust was recorded on a personal weather station. The time of this report was slightly adjusted forward to account for the delay in which the report was received and to better match radar data. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Western | - | A 60 miles per hour wind gust was measured by a personal weather station. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Western | - | Emergency manager reported moderate tree damage and powerlines down. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Western | - | Personal weather station measured a peak wind gust of 60 mph. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Western | - | Personal weather station measured a peak wind gust of 66 mph. |
| July 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Western | - | Public reported roof torn off of grain bin. |
| June 2018 | Tornado (EF0) | Western | - | This brief, narrow, tornado flattened corn, tore off roof panels of a shed, and collapsed some walls from a small shed. |
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Western | - | Three center pivot irrigation systems and large tree limbs were damaged by thunderstorm winds. |
| May 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Western | - | The emergency manager relayed a report of a spotter estimated wind gust to 60 mph. |
| May 2014 | Tornado (EF1) | Western | - | This tornado initially touched down in Jefferson county and tracked around 15.5 miles in total (nearly 10 of them in Saline county). |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Western | - | Thunderstorm winds were estimated at around 60 mph near Western. |
| June 2010 | Hail | Western | - | The hail reached quarter-size a few minutes later. |
| June 2009 | Hail | Western | - | Quarter-size hail was reported from around 1 mile southwest of Western to around 1 mile east of town. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Western | - | A thunderstorm wind gust estimated at around 60 mph was reported in Western. |
| June 2008 | Flash Flood | Western | - | Heavy rain caused flash flooding along Swan Creek and its tributaries over southern Saline county. The water flooded numerous county roads and hundreds of acres of farmland. Rainfall was reported at 3 to 5 inches in the Swanton area. |
| May 2007 | Tornado (EF1) | Western | - | This tornado did intermittent damage from 2 miles south of Western to around 3 miles southeast of Dorchester. As the tornado initially touched down south of Western, a camper and machine shed were destroyed and a center pivot overturned. In rural Saline county around 13 miles west of Wilber trees were twisted and uprooted and some building damage was noted and some debris was scattered up to 1/4 mile away from its original location. Farm outbuildings were severely damaged in the Tabor Hall area, which is 5 miles south of Dorchester, and numerous trees were uprooted or destroyed in the area which destroyed or severely damaged 8 headstones and monuments in a nearby cemetery. The final damage area was around 3 miles southeast of Dorchester where several pig feeders and livestock huts were destroyed and the roof of a farm outbuilding was removed and a barn destroyed. |
| May 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Western | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at over 60 mph broke a power pole south of Western. |
| April 2006 | Hail | Western | - | From the first of 2 storms this night that dropped 3/4 inch hail. |
| April 2006 | Hail | Western | - | From the second of 2 storms that dropped 3/4 inch this night. |
| June 1998 | Tornado (F0) | Western | - | Large trees uprooted. Fence damaged. |
| April 2017 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| October 2016 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| April 2010 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| August 2009 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Western | - | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| February 2004 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| May 2001 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| September 2001 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| September 2001 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Western | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Hail | Western | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swanton | 6.4 miles | 10 | |
| Tobias | 7.5 miles | 10 | |
| Wilber | 14.0 miles | 11 | |
| De Witt | 14.6 miles | 11 | |
| Pleasant Hill | 14.7 miles | 14 | |
| Shestak | 17.3 miles | 15 | |
| Dorchester | 18.1 miles | 14 | |
| Friend | 18.5 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 Western | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1970183 | 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 834640. 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.




