Cochran County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Cochran County: 0.
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 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.

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

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 county boundary (or inside the county).
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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jul 21, 2009Hail$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A pair of slow moving and short-lived thunderstorms resulted in significant damage to cotton crops in northeastern Cochran County during the 17:00 CST hour of the 21st. Local newspaper reports and agricultural officials indicate that up to 15,000 acres of cotton were damaged or destroyed. Although reports did not specify hail size, estimates indicated here are based on damage and radar depictions of well-defined reflectivity three-body scatter artifacts.

2. Jul 17, 2009Thunderstorm Wind$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The high-precipitation supercell that impacted Parmer and Bailey Counties continued southward over Cochran County during the 19:00 CST hour of the 17th. A swath of very intense damaging winds continued from southern Bailey County across northeastern Cochran County. The Texas Tech University West Texas Mesonet site near Morton initially recorded a gust of 58 mph at 19:15 CST. A subsequent gust of 77 mph was recorded at 19:20 CST. By 19:25 CST, however, a peak gust of 93 mph was measured by the Morton mesonet site. Damage was reported to be extensive in the Morton area. The damage swath additionally extended southward to Whiteface, where by 19:55 CST a 64 mph gust was measured at…

3. Jun 18, 2014Hail$302,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   While investigating a fatal plane crash near Lehman, broadcast media reported that a family nearby was caught in a hailstorm while in their car. The family estimated the hail was as large as ping pong balls which caused numerous dents to their vehicle after pulling off the road. NTSB personnel had not yet released the official findings of their study at the time of this publication, but preliminary evidence indicates that the severe thunderstorm contributed to the aircraft mishap which claimed the lives of all three occupants. This information is subject to change pending the results of the NTSB investigation. The value of the 1985 Piper PA-46-310P was estimated at $300K.

4. Jun 23, 2003Thunderstorm Wind$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong thunderstorm wind damaged 34 center pivot irrigation systems, blew down 19 power poles, uprooted trees, and blew down signs.

5. Mar 12, 2006Wildfire, Cochran$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Very large wind-driven wildfires burned tens of thousands of acres and destroyed property in association with the high winds on the 12th. At least a half dozen wildfires were sparked during the event, four were significant fires. The two largest fires burned out of control for nearly a week.A fire that began west of Abernathy in southern Hale County destroyed a rural residence just after noon. Another significant wildfire south of Morton in Cochran County destroyed two homes before it was contained during the afternoon hours of the 13th.Major wildfires charred 40,000 acres of open grassland in Cottle and Childress Counties. One massive fire ignited near the Cottle and Childress…

6. Mar 23, 2007Tornado$175,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Levelland Fire Department reported a second tornado west-northwest of Morton shortly before 22:30 CST. A National Weather Service damage survey found evidence of a strong tornado that developed west of Morton and crossed Texas Highway 114 as it tracked north-northwestward through north-central Cochran county. The tornado impacted the Star Route Gin, which sustained severe damage including the partial collapse of the structure. Concrete anchors were pulled out of the ground and portions of the steel roof beams were heavily damaged.|The tornado continued north-northwestward across Farm to Market Road 596 where the tornado destroyed at least three irrigation systems and snapped…

7. Dec 26, 2015Blizzard, Cochran$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Following a mild Christmas, a strong cold front arrived early on the morning of the 26th ahead of temperatures falling to freezing territory throughout the course of the afternoon all in advance of a slow-moving upper low in the Desert Southwest and far north-central Mexico. Northerly winds increased in intensity during the day and by early evening were frequently gusting between 50 and 60 mph over the entire South Plains. These winds created several power outages, minor roof damage, downed tree limbs, and even toppled some trees completely. By mid-evening on the 26th, exceptionally rich moisture from the Gulf of Mexico deepened over the shallow dome of cold air and resulted in…

8. May 1, 1996Drought, Cochran$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The drought continued through most of the month of May, causing significant crop damage. Some areas received several inches of rain during the severe weather of the 25th and 26th, but this was not nearly enough to break this long term drought.

9. Jul 9, 2015Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A slow-moving line of thunderstorms exited eastern New Mexico this evening and produced heavy rainfall and strong winds across the western South Plains and southwest Texas Panhandle. Severe winds from a microburst were measured at Lazbuddie. In Cochran County, training storms for nearly three hours produced an estimated four to six inches of rain in a swath about seven miles west of Morton and Lehman. Late this night, Texas Department of Transportation reported all roads in northern Cochran County had flooded stretches with some sections of Highway 114 closed due to two feet of standing water. A portion of Farm-to-Market Road 1169 southwest of Morton suffered some damage and was…

10. Jun 1, 1996Drought, Cochran$100,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Despite periodic thunderstorms this month, the long drought continued across the extreme southern Texas Panhandle, the South Plains, and the Low Rolling Plains. The very dry weather adversely impacted the early cotton crop that dominates this area.

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

111°FJun 26, 2011

All-time low

−12°FJan 13, 1963

Warmest night

75°F5 times, most recently Aug 12, 2023

Coldest day

7°FFeb 15, 2021

Wettest day

4.69 inJul 7, 1960

Snowiest day

10.0 inDec 14, 1987

Hottest year

2024mean 61.7°F

Coldest year

1979mean 56.2°F

Wettest year

200434.96 in

Driest year

20117.47 in

Snowiest season

36.5 in1982-83

Station Morton (USC00416074), 3,766 ft elevation, 2.3 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1962 to October 23, 2026; 99.5% 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.

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.

Neighbouring counties

• 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 USC00416074.
• 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.
• 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.