NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Fairbury, NE
Every tropical system within 75 miles since 1851 and every tornado within 25 miles since 1950.
Data: NOAA NHC HURDAT2 and NOAA SPC tornado and hail reports, through 2025 · Updated
No tropical storm or hurricane has passed within 75 miles of Fairbury, Nebraska since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 133 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 14 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 0
- Tropical storms
- 0
- Tornadoes
- 133
- EF3 or stronger
- 14
within 75 mi, since 1851
below hurricane strength
within 25 mi, since 1950
9 deaths in all
What the records show for Fairbury
The highest rating among the 133 tornadoes within 25 miles is F4, reached 3 times; the most recent, on May 22, 2004, came within 13 miles. The deadliest, an F3 on May 9, 1953, killed 5 people. Of the 133, 6 had paths within 5 miles of the city centre, and 57 have come since 2000. May has had the most tornadoes, 57. The most recent tornado was on May 6, 2024. Fairbury has more tornadoes within 25 miles than 63% of the 91 Nebraska cities on this site. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 167 times since 1957, with stones up to 3.5 inches. Fairbury has more hail reports within 10 miles than 64% of the 91 Nebraska cities.
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Tornadoes within 25 miles of Fairbury
By decade
- 2020s3
- 2010s17
- 2000s37(2 EF3+)
- 1990s29(4 EF3+)
- 1980s8(1 EF3+)
- 1970s18(2 EF3+)
- 1960s7(1 EF3+)
- 1950s14(4 EF3+)
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 22, 2004 | F4 | 13 mi | 54 mi | 1 / 38 |
| May 20, 1957 | F4 | 19 mi | 44.6 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jun 4, 1955 | F4 | 19 mi | 61.9 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 9, 1953 | F3 | 20 mi | 46.9 mi | 5 / 82 |
| Sep 25, 1973 | F3 | 20 mi | 169.7 mi | 3 / 42 |
| May 29, 2008 | EF3 | in town | 55.22 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jul 24, 1993 | F3 | 12 mi | 9 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jun 15, 1992 | F3 | 24 mi | 21 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Apr 26, 1991 | F3 | 19 mi | 24 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 13, 1990 | F3 | 14 mi | 13 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jun 12, 1984 | F3 | 21 mi | 13 mi | 0 / 5 |
| Sep 25, 1973 | F3 | 25 mi | 69.9 mi | 0 / 2 |
The strongest 12 of 133, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Fairbury
The Storm Prediction Center has 167 hail reports within 10 miles of Fairbury since 1957, made on 99 separate days. Of these, 118 were 1 inch across or larger, and 17 reached 2 inches. The largest, 3.5 inches, fell on May 20, 1957. The most recent report is from May 18, 2025. June has the most reports, 50.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Fairbury
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Fairbury 5S, NE, 6 miles south of Fairbury at 1,350 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 65°F; January is the coolest, at 36°F and 14°F. May is the wettest at 5.1 inches of precipitation on average and January the driest at 0.8 inches; the year adds up to 32.6 inches over 55 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 42 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 144 nights a year. Snowfall averages 20.7 inches a year, most of it in January. That 32.6 inches is more than at 61 of the 68 Nebraska stations used on this site (90%). Beatrice, 25 miles east, has its own station (Beatrice 1N, NE): 31.4 inches a year, 1.2 less than here, and the same July average high, 88°F.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Snow in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 36 | 14 | 0.8 | 2 | 5.7 |
| Feb | 41 | 18 | 1.0 | 3 | 5.6 |
| Mar | 53 | 28 | 1.7 | 4 | 2.4 |
| Apr | 64 | 38 | 3.0 | 6 | 0.8 |
| May | 74 | 49 | 5.1 | 8 | 0.0 |
| Jun | 84 | 60 | 5.0 | 7 | 0.0 |
| Jul | 88 | 65 | 4.3 | 6 | 0.0 |
| Aug | 86 | 63 | 3.6 | 6 | 0.0 |
| Sep | 80 | 53 | 3.1 | 5 | 0.0 |
| Oct | 67 | 40 | 2.4 | 4 | 0.4 |
| Nov | 52 | 28 | 1.5 | 3 | 2.4 |
| Dec | 40 | 18 | 1.1 | 2 | 3.4 |
| Year | 64 | 39 | 32.6 | 55 | 20.7 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Fairbury 5S, NE (1,350 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals. Normals describe the station; the farther a place is from it, and the bigger the difference in height, the more its weather can differ.
Floods, thunderstorm wind and lightning near Fairbury
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 111 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Fairbury: 94 thunderstorm wind reports, 10 flash floods, 6 floods and 1 heavy rain event. They killed 1 person and injured 0, and the NWS estimated $6.4 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 98 mph, on June 13, 2001. Of the 89 Nebraska cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 58 have had fewer than Fairbury.
May 7, 2015: flood 6 miles from the centre of Fairbury — 1 killed, $5.3 million damage.
NWS: “Extremely heavy rainfall of 6 to 10 inches fell across the northern basin of the Little Blue River. This cause the river to swell to record levels around the Fairbury area.”
July 18, 2001: thunderstorm wind 10 miles from the centre of Fairbury — $500,000 damage.
NWS: “A supercell thunderstorm produced a 20 mile long path of damage due to downburst winds across Jefferson county. The winds were estimated at between 80 and 90 mph.”
June 13, 2001: thunderstorm wind 9 miles from the centre of Fairbury — $400,000 damage.
NWS: “This slow moving supercell earlier produced a tornado in the adjacent county in northern Kansas. In Nebraska, near Reynolds, most of the damage was apparently caused by straight line winds, possibly from the rear flank downdraft, estimated at close to 100 mph.”
Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, events whose starting point is on record, 1996 to June 30, 2026. Damage is the NWS estimate in the dollars of the year, not insured losses, and NWS notes that some reports are unverified.
Flood insurance claims, disaster declarations and FEMA risk ratings
Jefferson County, which includes Fairbury, has been named in 25 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1967, 23 of them major disasters (by incident: 11 severe storms, 7 floods, 2 biological emergencies, 2 ice storms). The latest major disaster declaration was Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Tornadoes, and Flooding, on August 3, 2026. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Jefferson County a Very Low rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively Moderate for hail and strong wind; Relatively Low for tornadoes and lightning; Very Low for inland flooding and heat waves. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $8.4 million a year, the 50th highest of 93 Nebraska counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $3.0 million (36%), is from inland flooding.
Claims: FEMA, OpenFEMA Dataset FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims – v3, summed over ZIP codes; payments in the dollars of each year, not adjusted for inflation. Declarations: Disaster Declarations Summaries – v2, by county. Retrieved October 25, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).
Risk ratings: FEMA, National Risk Index county table, December 2025 (v1.20), retrieved October 26, 2026; ratings compare counties nationwide, are meant for planning and are no substitute for a local risk assessment. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Risk Index dataset API or downloadable datasets but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).
What counts as a pass, the distances and the sources: how this storm history is built.
Cities near Fairbury
- Beatrice, NE25 mi
- Wilber, NE26 mi
- Belleville, KS32 mi
- Geneva, NE33 mi
- Crete, NE35 mi
- Marysville, KS36 mi
- Milford, NE44 mi
- Hickman, NE44 mi
- Concordia, KS47 mi
- Superior, NE47 mi
- Seward, NE53 mi
- Lincoln, NE53 mi
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