Garza County

Every recorded tornado

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

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

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.

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. Feb 27, 2011Wildfire, Garza$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The passage of an intense upper air storm system over the Southern Plains of the U.S. on the 27th caused high winds, blowing dust, and an outbreak of destructive grassland wildfires that affected portions of three states.||Locally on the South Plains of west Texas, intense southwest to westerly winds intensified rapidly in the hours around midday. These winds resulted in widespread blowing dust across region. Visibility at Lubbock's Preston Smith International Airport dropped to less than one-quarter mile in the dust storm. Similar dust storm conditions undoubtedly occurred at many South Plains locales, but went unreported. Damage brought on by the winds and resultant wildland…

2. Jul 4, 2010Flash Flood$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Garza County Sheriff's Office initially reported impacts from flash flooding shortly after 05:00 CST. At 05:03 CST, high water reportedly began to threaten a home in Southland and water was beginning to rapidly flow through many Post city streets. By 05:53 CST, reports indicated that a playa lake at the Post city pool had flooded and was overflowing with rapidly flowing water spilling over U.S. Highway 84 at a depth that was over the guard rails. By 06:02 CST, emergency officials reported widespread flooding of structures in Post, and that sewer was backing up into many homes and businesses. A door-to-door search was conducted to remove residents from flooded structures. The…

3. Jun 4, 2002Hail$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Garza County Sheriff's office reported baseball size hail in town.

4. May 5, 2006Thunderstorm Wind$350,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A wet microburst produced destructive winds that spread south through a small mobile home community at Lake Alan Henry near the intersection of Farm to Market Roads 2458 and 3519. One resident of the community was injured during the storm. A National Weather Service damage survey team estimated that winds associated with the microburst exceeded 90 MPH. One mobile home was blown toward the south and impacted two vehicles that were parked in front of an adjacent home. Debris, including the steel-frame structure of the mobile home, pushed the two vehicles up to 40 feet while the remains of the home were blown more than 40 yards into an open field. One vehicle was crushed by the…

5. May 4, 2015Flood$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A deep fetch of Gulf moisture overspread the South Plains this afternoon in advance of a slow-moving trough. Numerous thunderstorms erupted by late afternoon across the western South Plains and spread slowly northeast through the overnight hours under weak upper level winds. The slow nature of these storms resulted in torrential rainfall rates and flooding in many areas, but the most impressive rainfall and flooding bulls-eyed in central and southern Lynn County where between 6 and 12 inches of rain was measured before midnight. Nearly all roads in Lynn County were closed by DPS officials due to standing water in excess of one foot over long stretches. The city of Tahoka became…

6. Apr 9, 2011Wildfire, Garza$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A potent spring-time storm system impacted the western and central U.S. during the 9th and 10th of April. Strong wind through a deep layer of the atmosphere overspread the Southern Plains on the 9th as the parent storm system initially approached the southern Rockies. The strengthening wind fields overspread pronounced surface heating and drying over the Southern Plains. This resulted in an outbreak of wind-driven wildfires across portions of five states. ||Locally on the South Plains, winds that gusted upwards of 59 mph (Hockely County) contributed to two significant and damaging wildfires. The 'Prentice' Fire ignited in Terry County around midday on the 9th. The fire consumed…

7. Jan 12, 2007Ice Storm, Garza$125,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A bitterly cold arctic air mass moved into the South Plains region of west Texas during the daytime hours on the 12th. A potent upper level system moving down from the Rockies provided the lift needed for a prolonged period of wintry precipitation which began during the evening hours of the 12th and persisted through much of the 14th. Because of the shallow nature of the arctic air mass, precipitation in the form of freezing rain and freezing drizzle was the dominant precipitation type. This led to several locations across the South Plains region receiving between one quarter and one inch of ice accumulations. |Approximately 245 auto-accidents were attributed to the ice build-up.…

8. Jun 3, 2003Hail$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Garza County Sheriff's Office reported golfball size hail.

9. May 1, 1996Drought, Garza$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.

10. Jun 1, 1996Drought, Garza$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

115°FJun 28, 1994

All-time low

−1°F3 times, most recently Feb 15, 2021

Warmest night

85°FAug 12, 2023

Coldest day

9°FFeb 15, 2021

Wettest day

8.20 inJul 4, 2010

Snowiest day

10.0 inFeb 2, 2014

Hottest year

2024mean 66.8°F

Coldest year

1979mean 59.3°F

Wettest year

194142.96 in

Driest year

19564.99 in

Snowiest season

26.3 in1972-73

Station Post (USC00417206), 2,601 ft elevation, 0.3 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1962 to October 23, 2026; 98.0% 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 USC00417206.
• 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.