Sterling County

Every recorded tornado

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

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. Jun 14, 1997Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Winds tore shingles off buildings in Sterling City.

2. May 31, 1999Hail$5,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Baseball size hail broke an estimated 40 to 50 windows in residences just northwest of Sterling City.

3. May 31, 1999Thunderstorm Wind$5,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe thunderstorm winds downed trees and destroyed a carport just northwest of Sterling City.

4. Mar 4, 2004Thunderstorm Wind$5,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Power lines were damaged as a result of strong thunderstorm winds.

5. Mar 23, 2000Thunderstorm Wind$3,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorm winds ripped the roof off of a barn and overturned a trailer on the south side of Sterling City.

6. Apr 7, 2007Winter Storm, Sterling$3,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A significant winter weather event with unseasonably cold temperatures affected West Central Texas on Easter Weekend. Winter weather events seldom occur in this region during April. An unseasonably cold airmass developed across the northern Plains, Midwest and Great Lakes Regions on April 5th and 6th. A strong high pressure system dropped south from Canada, and pushed this cold air southward across the Plains states and into Texas. Temperatures dropped into the 30 to 35 degree range across West Central Texas, by the early morning of Saturday, April 7th. The temperatures held steady or slowly dropped a few degrees during the day Saturday, and remained in the upper 20s to lower 30s…

7. May 2, 2007Thunderstorm Wind$2,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe wind gusts were measured at 70 MPH in Sterling City. The winds caused tree damage and some minor building damage.

8. Feb 24, 2007High Wind, Sterling$2,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A strong low pressure system moving across north Texas and Oklahoma produced an intense synoptic scale wind event across much of West Central Texas. In the wake of a passage of a dryline, sustained winds were recorded in the 40 to 55 miles per hour range with gusts approaching 60 miles per hour across much of west central Texas. In addition the winds kicked up dust across the Texas south plains and into the Big Country that reduced visibilities to less than one quarter of a mile at times. Also a few wild fires resulted from the strong winds as well at Sterling City and Mulberry Canyon located just southwest of Abilene. There were scattered reports of wind damage across West…

9. Jan 13, 2007Ice Storm, Sterling$1,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An arctic cold front moved through West Central Texas on Friday the 12th. Light freezing rain and drizzle developed behind the front as temperatures quickly dropped to below freezing. The freezing rain event gradually moved to the south and overspread all of West Central Texas by Sunday the 14th. Ice accumulations of up to two inches were reported along and north of I20 with one quarter to one half inch reported between Highway 87 and I20 across the Heartland and Northern Concho Valley. Around one quarter of an inch was reported between the I10 corridor and Highway 87. A few power outages were reported across the western Big Country. Numerous traffic accidents were reported across…

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

112°F3 times, most recently Aug 15, 2020

All-time low

−4°FDec 23, 1989

Warmest night

83°FAug 31, 2020

Coldest day

11°FJan 30, 1985

Wettest day

9.64 inJul 5, 1948

Snowiest day

8.0 inNov 16, 1980

Hottest year

2024mean 66.9°F

Coldest year

1976mean 61.7°F

Wettest year

199135.30 in

Driest year

19527.36 in

Snowiest season

15.6 in2020-21

Station Water Valley (USC00419499), 2,115 ft elevation, 19.2 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1964 to October 23, 2026; 95.7% 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 USC00419499.
• 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.