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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.

Western within Saline County

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

Population over time

2 figures

Western 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.

YearPeople Change
2010235
2020227-8 (-3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 10 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

3 since 2008

Regional 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 burning2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
1 March 2008Power generation/transmission/distribution5.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
13 November 2020Debris and open burning1.0 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
30 January 2012Debris and open burning15 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Saline County

Storms near this place

47 since 1996

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2004Tornado (F2)Western8 hurt, $20,000,000See description below
June 1998Thunderstorm WindWestern$60,000Strong 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 2024Thunderstorm WindWestern-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 2024Thunderstorm WindWestern-A 63 miles per hour wind gust was recorded on a personal weather station.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindWestern-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 2024Thunderstorm WindWestern-A 60 miles per hour wind gust was measured by a personal weather station.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindWestern-Emergency manager reported moderate tree damage and powerlines down.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindWestern-Personal weather station measured a peak wind gust of 60 mph.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindWestern-Personal weather station measured a peak wind gust of 66 mph.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindWestern-Public reported roof torn off of grain bin.
June 2018Tornado (EF0)Western-This brief, narrow, tornado flattened corn, tore off roof panels of a shed, and collapsed some walls from a small shed.
May 2017Thunderstorm WindWestern-Three center pivot irrigation systems and large tree limbs were damaged by thunderstorm winds.
May 2015Thunderstorm WindWestern-The emergency manager relayed a report of a spotter estimated wind gust to 60 mph.
May 2014Tornado (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 2011Thunderstorm WindWestern-Thunderstorm winds were estimated at around 60 mph near Western.
June 2010HailWestern-The hail reached quarter-size a few minutes later.
June 2009HailWestern-Quarter-size hail was reported from around 1 mile southwest of Western to around 1 mile east of town.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindWestern-A thunderstorm wind gust estimated at around 60 mph was reported in Western.
June 2008Flash FloodWestern-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 2007Tornado (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 2006Thunderstorm WindWestern-Thunderstorm winds estimated at over 60 mph broke a power pole south of Western.
April 2006HailWestern-From the first of 2 storms this night that dropped 3/4 inch hail.
April 2006HailWestern-From the second of 2 storms that dropped 3/4 inch this night.
June 1998Tornado (F0)Western-Large trees uprooted. Fence damaged.
April 2017HailWestern-no account filed
October 2016HailWestern-no account filed
April 2010HailWestern-no account filed
June 2010HailWestern-no account filed
August 2009HailWestern-no account filed
June 2008HailWestern-no account filed
August 2007HailWestern-no account filed
August 2007Thunderstorm WindWestern-no account filed
May 2007HailWestern-no account filed
April 2005HailWestern-no account filed
April 2005HailWestern-no account filed
February 2004HailWestern-no account filed
May 2004HailWestern-no account filed
June 2004HailWestern-no account filed
May 2001HailWestern-no account filed
June 2001HailWestern-no account filed
June 2001HailWestern-no account filed
June 2001HailWestern-no account filed
September 2001HailWestern-no account filed
September 2001HailWestern-no account filed
May 1998HailWestern-no account filed
June 1998HailWestern-no account filed
May 1996HailWestern-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Saline 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
Swanton6.4 miles10
Tobias7.5 miles10
Wilber14.0 miles11
De Witt14.6 miles11
Pleasant Hill14.7 miles14
Shestak17.3 miles15
Dorchester18.1 miles14
Friend18.5 miles10

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 WesternAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1970183The 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.