El Paso

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond this area.
2. Weak tornadoes were under-recorded before Doppler radar coverage became national in the early 1990s, so earlier decades read low. Ratings use the Fujita scale before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after.

Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, 1950 to 2025.

Every storm within 100 miles

1. Tropical storms and hurricanes (34 kt or more, still tropical) at closest approach. Post-tropical remnants with gale-force winds are listed but not counted. Direct: track within 50 miles; near: within 100 miles. Distance is measured to the county boundary for counties and to the city centre for cities, using positions interpolated hourly between HURDAT2 fixes.

National Hurricane Center HURDAT2, 1851 to 2025.

Every large fire

1. Large fires mapped by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program since 1984: 1,000 acres or more in the West, 500 or more in the East. Prescribed burns are excluded. Acres here are the part of each perimeter inside this place.

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), 1984 to 2026.

Smoke overhead

1. A smoke day is a date on which a smoke plume traced by NOAA Hazard Mapping System analysts from satellite imagery covered this place's point (the county's population centre or the city centre). Counts here are of medium or heavy smoke. Since 2018 analysts have often drawn light smoke as one area over most of the continent, so light-smoke counts are not comparable from year to year. The plumes show smoke anywhere in the air above, not air quality at the ground, and smoke hidden by cloud is missed.

NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, 2011 to 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Flood insurance figures are for El Paso County, the county that contains El Paso.

Claims by ZIP code

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).

OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026. NOAA Storm Events through 2026.

River crests

River gauges in El Paso County, the county that contains El Paso.

River gauges

1. Crests are the highest and the recent crests the National Weather Service lists for each river gauge in the county that has a flood stage, not every flood. Flood categories use each gauge's current flood stages; crests from before levees, dams or channel changes may not be comparable. Crests measured on an old datum are left out of the rankings.

NOAA National Water Prediction Service gauge records, retrieved October 30, 2026.

The drought index is for El Paso County, the county that contains El Paso.

1. The Palmer Drought Severity Index is computed by NOAA each month from the county's average temperature and precipitation, relative to the county's own climate. Zero is normal; -3 or lower is severe drought and -4 or lower extreme drought. It describes the long-term balance of moisture, not water supply or crop losses.

NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, 1895 to September 2026, issued October 6, 2026.

1. Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Catalog since 1900. Within 50 miles means the epicentre lies within 50 miles of the city centre.
2. Small earthquakes were under-recorded before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s and are still missed in remote areas, so early decades read low. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them and mix scales (moment, local and body-wave).

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, 1900 to present, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Mapped landslides

Landslides mapped in El Paso County.

Mapped by USGS Conterminous (3), NASA (1).

1. Landslides mapped in the USGS compilation of landslide inventories across the United States (version 3.0, 2025), rated probable or better. The compilation joins inventories made by federal and state agencies for different purposes and areas, so the number mapped in a county reflects how closely it has been surveyed as much as how often its slopes fail. An area with few records may simply not have been mapped. Deaths are as recorded in the inventories; a slide listed in two inventories is counted once.

USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0, retrieved October 27, 2026.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Nov 4, 2016Hail$300 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Supercell thunderstorms (very rare for November in this area) affected much of El Paso. The strongest, which actually weakened before moving into the United States, produced golf ball hail over far east El Paso into Horizon City. This caused record breaking insurance claims for a single hail event with a total of $200 million damage to vehicles and $100 million to homes. This doubled the previous record from 9-16-09. Flooding also occurred due to excessive hail amounts plugging up drains.

2. Aug 1, 2006Flash Flood$180 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms within a saturated atmosphere repeatedly developed and moved over mainly the northwest third of El Paso County, concentrating in an area over and near the Franklin Mountains. Rainfall reports varied from 4 to more than 6 inches within 15 hours in this area, with an isolated report of about 8 inches on the western slope of the mountain range. Antecedent conditions from 4 days of heavy rains, combined with terrain effects of the mountains led to excessive runoff and flooding not seen on such a large scale in the El Paso area in more than 100 years. The power of raging arroyos and street flooding on sloped terrain moved dozens of vehicles and trees through the west side…

3. Sep 16, 2009Hail$100 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Far east El Paso was hardest hit by this second supercell, with extensive golfball to possibly tennis ball size hail falling for 20 minutes. Thousands of automobiles were damaged, with several dealerships suffering much loss. Skylights were destroyed, roofs damaged and windows broken on thousands of buildings. Several injuries were reported from hailstones as well.

4. Sep 16, 2009Hail$20.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous skylights and automobiles were damaged from ping pong ball size hail.

5. Aug 1, 2006Flash Flood$20.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms within a saturated atmosphere repeatedly developed and moved over mainly the northwest third of El Paso County, concentrating in an area over and near the Franklin Mountains. Rainfall reports varied from 4 to more than 6 inches within 15 hours in this area, with an isolated report of about 8 inches on the western slope of the mountain range. Antecedent conditions from 4 days of heavy rains, combined with terrain effects of the mountains led to excessive runoff and flooding not seen on such a large scale in the El Paso area in more than 100 years. The power of raging arroyos and street flooding on sloped terrain moved dozens of vehicles and trees through the west side…

6. Sep 16, 2009Hail$20.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The supercell continued southeastward along I-10 for several miles. According to TxDOT, hundreds of vehicles along the interstate and other highways suffered extensive damage.

7. Jan 17, 1996High Wind, El Paso$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   High winds did widespread but mostly minor damage across west Texas and Southern New Mexico. The most serious incident was a roof partially ripped off a supermarket in Anthony, TX killing three people. On Fort Bliss, at least 6.9 million dollars of damage was done, 80% as a result of damaged roofs. High winds also ripped much of the roof from the Camlu retirement village in Central El Paso.

8. Sep 16, 2009Hail$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The supercell continued southeastward and dropped golfball size hail on El Paso's lower valley area.

9. Sep 28, 2007Hail$8.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A swath of large hail (quarter to hen's egg size) driven by 60 to 70 mph microburst winds caused extensive damage to a portion of west El Paso. Skylights were destroyed, roofs damaged, car windshields and south-facing house windows smashed. Dozens of automobiles suffered body damage.

10. Feb 1, 2011Extreme Cold/Wind Chill, El Paso$5.0 million
    National Weather Service narrative

    High temperatures on Feb 2nd only warmed up to around 15F degrees across all of El Paso County. This broke the all-time record low high temperature for the city of El Paso. The low temperature on the morning of Feb 3rd fell to around 0F with 1F officially at the El Paso International Airport. El Paso experienced 78 consecutive hours of temperatures at or below freezing. All 8 of El Paso Electrics generators froze causing rolling blackouts across the city for several days. Over 200,000 customers went without electricity for at least part of the day on Feb 3rd. Due to the rolling blackouts...the water pumping stations were not able to pump enough water to keep the reservoirs full.…

1. Storm Events records before 1996 cover only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail. Damage figures are as reported by the National Weather Service at the time, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 1950 to 2026, issued October 26, 2026.

All-time high

114°FJun 30, 1994

All-time low

−8°FJan 11, 1962

Warmest night

85°F4 times, most recently Jul 15, 2023

Coldest day

15°FFeb 2, 2011

Wettest day

2.89 inSep 21, 1941

Snowiest day

14.5 inDec 13, 1987

Hottest year

2024mean 69.9°F

Coldest year

1976mean 61.3°F

Wettest year

200617.51 in

Driest year

20034.21 in

Snowiest season

35.0 in1982-83

Station El Paso International Airport (USW00023044), 3,944 ft elevation, 4.0 miles from the city centre. Daily records from 1938 to October 27, 2026; 99.9% of days in the last 30 years are complete. Records at a single station can differ from a city’s official threaded record, which may combine several stations.

NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily.

Declarations for El Paso County.

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).

OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, retrieved October 30, 2026. Statewide declarations are not listed.

• Tornadoes NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, through 2025.
• Tropical cyclones NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 (Atlantic; Northeast and Central Pacific), through 2025.
• Wildfire USGS/USFS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, through 2026.
• Storm events NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, through 2026.
• Flood insurance OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026.
• Declarations OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Weather records NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily, station USW00023044.
• River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Drought NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, through September 2026.
• Smoke NOAA NESDIS Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Landslides USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0 (2025).
• Earthquakes USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), retrieved October 30, 2026.

Joins, thresholds and known limits are set out in the methodology. Found an error? Report it. Page built October 30, 2026.