Dickens County

Every recorded tornado

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

Every earthquake of magnitude 4 or more within 50 miles

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. Jun 1, 2018Hail$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Very large hail to baseball size pummeled the city of Spur this evening. The hail lasted for for several minutes and caused widespread damage to buildings, roofs, windows and vehicles.

2. Jul 11, 2006Thunderstorm Wind$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A severe thunderstorm produced extreme winds and resulted in extensive damage in Spur around 19:30 CST on the 11th. Local officials and media reported that "dozens" of homes and businesses were damaged, and that one family was left homeless and treated for injuries.The Texas Spur newspaper reported that a mobile home was destroyed when the walls were "collapsed" by the winds. The family inside took shelter underneath a table inside the home, but two people present sustained injuries. The Spur Farmer's Co-Op Gin sustained extensive roof damage, and a gas pump canopy was blown a considerable distance downwind and caused secondary damage as the un-earthed skids accompanied the…

3. Nov 27, 2015Ice Storm, Dickens$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Following a sharp cold front which ignited a few strong thunderstorms during the late afternoon hours on Thanksgiving Day, brisk northerly winds and freezing temperatures overspread the region and remained in place for nearly 48 hours. Atop this shallow layer of cold air, anomalously moist air from the Gulf of Mexico combined with a strong subtropical upper jet to produce periodic rounds of mostly freezing rain from Thanksgiving night through the morning hours on the 28th. A few periods of sleet and even very light snow accompanied this multi-day storm; however, all significant impacts were the direct result of icing from freezing rain. As the brunt of the freezing rain fell on…

4. Apr 10, 2016Hail$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Golf ball size hail began falling in Dickens around 1717 CST and for the next 13 minutes proceeded to grow to tennis ball size resulting in extensive damage to cars. Many trees were stripped of their leaves and some homes would likely require new roofs.

5. May 20, 2019Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A Texas Tech University West Texas mesonet site near Spur recorded a wind gust to 80 mph. Furthermore, a swath of thunderstorm wind damage was observed near Spur to approximately six miles north of Spur. Fire department personnel in Spur reported 20 utility poles blown over along Farm to Market Road 1868 just northwest of Spur. Also, a roof was blown off of a house near the intersection of Texas Highway 70 and County Road 466.

6. May 1, 1996Drought, Dickens$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.

7. Jun 1, 1996Drought, Dickens$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.

8. Jun 1, 2003Lightning$75,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning struck a home and caused a fire that burned it down.

9. Mar 28, 2017Tornado$75,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Meteorologists with NWS Lubbock and the Texas Tech University West Texas Mesonet conducted a storm damage survey in far east-central Dickens County during the morning of March 29. This team surveyed tornado damage at the Pitchfork Ranch located about 11 miles west of Guthrie, TX along U.S. Highway 82.||The most significant damage observed at the Pitchfork Ranch consisted of about 300 square feet of metal roofing removed from a well-constructed building. Many of the underlying support trusses to the roof were also separated from the building. Various trees were blown over and strewn about. A large twin gravity box was also toppled. The damage to the roof was consistent with maximum…

10. Jun 16, 2008Thunderstorm Wind$60,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    An intermittent swath of damaging winds, at times combined with large hail, accompanied a complex of thunderstorms from near Afton to Spur. A barn was destroyed near Patton Springs School east of Afton, where the public estimated gusts up to 60 mph at 19:43 CST. Downed utility lines resulted in electrical outages near that community. ||The Texas Tech University West Texas Mesonet additionally recorded a 60 mph thunderstorm wind gust at 20:35 CST near Spur. Minor damage was reported at the Spur Fire Station where a power line was blown down and several antennas were damaged. In addition, some shingles were reportedly blown off of homes in Spur. No injuries were reported.

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

117°FJun 28, 1994

All-time low

−17°FFeb 8, 1933

Warmest night

83°FJun 20, 2011

Coldest day

8°FFeb 15, 2021

Wettest day

5.93 inJul 1, 2017

Snowiest day

11.0 inMar 19, 1924

Hottest year

1954mean 65.4°F

Coldest year

1949mean 59.5°F

Wettest year

200444.59 in

Driest year

19566.24 in

Snowiest season

18.6 in1923-24

Station Spur (USC00418566), 2,297 ft elevation, 4.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1911 to October 23, 2026; 98.5% 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 USC00418566.
• 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.