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GRAND ISLAND WEATHER

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About Grand Island

Grand Island is the county seat of Hall County and one of the larger cities in Nebraska. The 2020 census counted 53,131 residents. The city sits a few miles north of the Platte River in the center of the state. Interstate 80 runs about four miles to the south, and U.S. Routes 30 and 281 pass through. Central Nebraska Regional Airport has commercial service.

History

Thirty-five German settlers left Davenport, Iowa, in 1857 and arrived on 4 July to settle an island formed by the Wood River and the Platte. French traders had called it La Grande Isle, and the name stuck. The Union Pacific Railroad reached the area in 1868. By 1870 the town had 1,057 people, and it was incorporated in 1872. The first sugar beet processing factory in the United States opened here around 1890.

The 1980 tornadoes

Seven tornadoes struck the city and the surrounding area on the night of 3 June 1980. The strongest was rated F4 and cut a path six miles long and more than half a mile wide. Five people died and about 200 were injured. Three of the tornadoes rotated clockwise, which is rare. Debris from the cleanup was piled into what is now Tornado Hill. The storm was the basis for the book Night of the Twisters.

Things to see

The Stuhr Museum, on the south-west side of town, holds more than 140,000 artefacts and includes Railroad Town, an 1890s living history village. The Nebraska State Fair has been held in Grand Island since 2010. Each March, close to a million sandhill cranes stop in the area on their way north. Fonner Park runs thoroughbred racing.

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Grand Island, the seat of Hall County and Nebraska's fourth-largest city, takes its name from a Platte River island once known to French traders as "La Grande Isle." German immigrant families from Davenport, Iowa established the original settlement on July 4, 1857, and the city was incorporated in 1872 after the Union Pacific Railroad platted a station nearby. Grand Island has won the National Civic League's All-America City Award four times (1955, 1967, 1981, and 1982), is home to Hornady Manufacturing and the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center, and has hosted the Nebraska State Fair since it relocated from Lincoln in 2010. The Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, with more than 140,000 artifacts, sits just outside the city. On June 3, 1980, a devastating supercell thunderstorm spawned seven tornadoes in and around Grand Island in a single night.

County seat and Nebraska's fourth-largest city, named for a Platte River island; home to the Nebraska State Fair, Hornady Manufacturing, and the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer.

Navigate & Explore Grand Island

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Road Conditions: Nebraska 511 — 511.nebraska.gov

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Events: Events in Grand Island →

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Grand Island Businesses & Places

421 listings in Grand Island.

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