Sutton County

Every recorded tornado

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

Claims by ZIP code

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.

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. Sep 21, 2018Flash Flood$8.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Very heavy rain of eight plus inches fell north of Sonora in the vicinity of thirteen uncontrolled dams north of Sonora. Sites 1-8 are on the Dry Devils River and Sites 9-13 are on Lowrey Draw. As these dams filled, flood waters overflowed the spillways into the draws. This was the first time (as far as anyone knows) the emergency spillways were activated for some of these dams. There were no breaches, these structures worked as they were meant to function. Normally these structures would help mitigate flooding in Sonora, but previous rains had already filled up many of the sites. ||One of the deputies saw a wall of water come down the Dry Devil's Draw just north of Sonora at…

2. Oct 7, 2002Flash Flood$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A cold front moved through the area during the overnight hours on October 6th. This front stalled over southern Texas combined with an upper level storm system over the Southwestern U.S. and produced 4 to 7 inches of rain in the southern portion of Sutton County. Several streams quickly overflowed their banks. Three people narrowly escaped as their research vehicle was swept away when they crossed a flooded road. They had to be rescued by helicopter.

3. Oct 8, 2002Flash Flood$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rains of 2 to 4 inches during the morning hours of the 8th aggravated already high creeks and streams over much of Sutton County. Numerous roads were closed due to high water and road washouts.Rainfall totals over the past couple of days were 6 to 10 inches.

4. Jun 16, 1997Hail$100,000
5. Apr 26, 2009Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   There was some wind and hail damage reported in and around Sonora.

6. Sep 14, 1996Flash Flood$25,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Over four inches of rain fell over western Sutton County the evening of the 14th and caused some flash flooding.

7. Jun 22, 1997Flash Flood$25,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Up to three inches of rain fell over southeastern Sutton County.

8. Aug 28, 1999Lightning$20,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning struck a house located about 15 miles west of Sonora. The resulting fire destroyed approximately 40 percent of the house, including the attic and several other rooms.

9. Jan 16, 2007Winter Storm, Sutton$12,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Right on the heels of the Ice Storm that affected the region a few days before, another surge of arctic air moved into West Central Texas on Monday the 15th. With the active sub-tropical jet overhead, and disturbances moving through the jet, snow began to fall Tuesday morning Janurary 16th across the Northern Edwards Plateau and along the I10 corridor. The snow spread north and east into the Concho Valley including San Angelo. The snow continued to spread northeast across the Northwest Hill Country and into Coleman and Brownwood by Tuesday afternoon. The snow eventually spread across the I20 corridor across the southern Big Country early Wednesday morning. The Snow began to taper…

10. Oct 24, 2002Flash Flood$12,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Heavy rains during the morning hours of the 24th dumped 2 to 4 inches of additional rain on already saturated soils. This produced significant flooding in the southwestern portion of Sutton County. Roads were once again impassible for the third time in the past month.

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°FJun 22, 2023

All-time low

−6°FJan 9, 1879

Warmest night

79°F4 times, most recently Jun 7, 2008

Coldest day

12°FDec 29, 1880

Wettest day

4.92 inJun 27, 2007

Snowiest day

4.0 inFeb 1, 2005

Hottest year

1998mean 67.6°F

Coldest year

1880mean 63.8°F

Wettest year

200738.06 in

Driest year

18797.60 in

Snowiest season

6.1 in2009-10

Station Fort Mckavett (USC00413257), 2,169 ft elevation, 35.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1877 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 USC00413257.
• 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.