Hemphill County

Every recorded tornado

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

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 26, 2024Wildfire, Hemphill$300 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   During the morning of Monday, February 26th, a decayed power pole broke at ground level and caused the three-wire power line atop it to fall and make contact with fine grassy fuels, igniting what would become the Smokehouse Creek Fire. At approximately 2:20 pm on February 26, 2024, Texas A&M Forest Service received a request for assistance for a wildfire in Hutchinson County. The fire ignited one mile north of Stinnett, Texas and east of Highway 207, with initial fire behavior reported as extremely active in tall grasses due to high winds and low relative humidity. Winds gusting over 40- 50 mph pushed the fire east from Highway 207 approximately 30 miles to Highway 70 north of…

2. Mar 28, 2007Tornado$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado developed in southwestern Hemphill County approximately sixteen miles south southwest of Canadian. The tornado moved north northwest at twenty miles an hour and encountered an area of active oil drilling rigs. The tornado hit two drilling rigs. An employee of the first drilling rig that was hit was residing in a single-wide mobile home that was anchored into the ground. The mobile home was destroyed and displaced one hundred yards from its original location and the employee was thrown approximately fifty yards. A semi trailer used for storage was blown over. A structure used to lift the oil-well casing onto the oil derrick was also blown down and severely damaged. The…

3. Jan 14, 2017Ice Storm, Hemphill$2.3 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The number of residents affected were 1088. There were 250 business that also reported economic injuries. Damages and economic impact also resulted from: debris cleanup (downed trees, etc), numerous downed power lines and broken power poles, and damaged to roads and bridges.

4. Feb 24, 2013Blizzard, Hemphill$660,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Blizzard conditions reported by a trained spotter in Briscoe and 12.0 inches storm total snow.

5. Jun 13, 2003Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Tractor trailer rig was overturned and totaled by the strong winds.

6. Jun 13, 2003Flash Flood$125,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous reports of street flooding in the city of Canadian along with three homes flooded. No injuries were reported from the flash flooding.

7. Jun 18, 2008Thunderstorm Wind$120,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Law enforcement officials reported that two barns were destroyed by the thunderstorm wind gusts.

8. Jun 22, 2023Tornado$85,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado developed near County Road 17 and produced some minor tree damage, with limbs and branches being blown down. The tornado then continued across open field before impacting a residence just off Highway 277, where it brought down trees and some power lines along that road. As it crossed Highway 277, it brought down about 7 power poles, and caused more impressive tree damage, snapping branches and some trees while uprooting other hardwood trees. It resulted in some minor roof damage to a shed and damaged another shed at a natural gas facility. The tornado then crossed County Road 22, just to the south of Highway 277. Here, it snapped several hardwood branches and uprooted…

9. May 16, 2002Thunderstorm Wind$45,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Barns were destroyed by the high winds and a cattle trailer was blown over. Also...part of an abandoned home had been destroyed along with some metal pipes and horse trough-type things had been twisted and scattered. One had been blown up U.S. Highway 83 about two hundred yards and to the west of the highway. A couple of fairly large trees on the west side of the highway were blown down.

10. Sep 10, 2006Thunderstorm Wind$38,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Hurricane-like conditions reported about one mile southeast of Dreyfoos which lasted for nearly thirty minutes. Some of the damage reported included a door blown off a hayshed...a feed bunker damaged...and several windows blown out of a home.

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.

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.
• 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.