Runnels County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

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 14, 2021Cold/Wind Chill, Runnels$16.8 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   San Angelo ASOS reported reported wind chill readings of -10 to -16 degrees. Runnels County reported damage to roads and bridges, infrastructure and public utility systems.

2. May 24, 2002Thunderstorm Wind$15.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Very high thunderstorm winds along with baseball size hail produced widespread damage across the town of Winters. Numerous windows were broken out by the wind and hail. Numerous trees were also reported blown down by the high winds.

3. May 18, 2019Tornado$6.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This long track EF-3 Tornado damaged or destroyed several homes and outbuildings. |It snapped tree trunks and even swept one home completely off its foundation. The tornado wrapped a woman in carpet and threw her for 150 feet. Thankfully, she survived with minimal injuries. This tornado was multi-vortex at times as it also remained mostly in rural areas. It even lodged a steel C-Purlin into a branch of a Mesquite tree at the Ballinger Country Club. This tornado destroyed the Ballinger High school Baseball field and threw a steel axle into the water tower and punctured it, causing all of the water to drain. This tornado affected 30 homes and destroyed six homes.

4. Sep 14, 1996Flash Flood$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Up to nine inches of rain fell over northern Runnels County during the afternoon and early evening of the 14th. Streets and roads were flooded and there were several heroic rescues from the floodwaters.

5. Jun 3, 1996Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The winds blew down power lines.

6. Jun 3, 1996Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong winds blew down power lines.

7. May 24, 2002Thunderstorm Wind$90,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong thunderstorm winds blew a tree onto a truck. A few outbuildings were also destroyed.

8. Aug 22, 1997Thunderstorm Wind$75,000
9. Mar 13, 2020Thunderstorm Wind$70,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   National Weather Service surveyed damage northwest of Ballinger. They found evidence of damaging straight line west winds estimated at 80 to 90 mph. These damaging winds impacted mostly rural property about 5.5 miles northwest of Ballinger to Hatchel. The swath of wind damage was about 2.5 miles wide and 5 miles long. The powerful thunderstorm winds damaged about 34 power poles, caused roof damage to a barn, destroyed a shed, removed some vinyl siding from a home, moved some hay trailers, uprooted a tree, broke numerous tree limbs, and damaged an irrigation pivot system.

10. Jul 16, 1998Thunderstorm Wind$55,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A microburst damaged a grain elevator and cotton gin, destroyed 2 empty grain silos, and damaged numerous roofs and carports across the community of Miles. One exterior wall of a house was penetrated by a two-by-four from a carport damaged nearby. Wind speeds were estimated at 80 mph.

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

116°FJun 30, 1907

All-time low

−6°FJan 31, 1949

Warmest night

83°F2 times, most recently Jun 16, 1939

Coldest day

14°FDec 22, 1990

Wettest day

7.05 inMay 15, 1946

Snowiest day

10.0 inJan 16, 1919

Hottest year

1933mean 69.2°F

Coldest year

1903mean 61.9°F

Wettest year

193550.55 in

Driest year

191710.69 in

Snowiest season

21.5 in1918-19

Station Ballinger 2 Nw (USC00410493), 1,700 ft elevation, 4.1 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1897 to October 21, 2026; 98.9% 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.

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 USC00410493.
• 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.