Taylor County

Every recorded tornado

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

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 12, 2014Hail$400 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A cold front interacted with a very unstable airmass across a large part of West Central Texas to trigger supercell thunderstorms with giant size hail and damaging downburst winds. One of the supercell thunderstorms pelted the City of Abilene with hail the size of DVDs, causing some injuries at an outdoor event and widespread damage to vehicles, roofs and windows. It may have been one of the costliest hail storms to ever impact Abilene. The town of Rochelle was also severely impacted by the destructive thunderstorms winds. There were quite a few reports of large hail and damaging winds across the region.

2. Jul 6, 2002Flash Flood$15.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tropical wave that had plagued south central Texas over the past several days moved to the north on the morning of the 6th. Thunderstorms moved into Taylor county around 3 AM. Rainfall rates of 2 to 3 inches per hour produced rainfall amounts of up to 12 inches in the southern portions of the county. A fire station on the south side of Abilene reported 5.2 inches of rain in less than 2 hours. The automated weather station at the Abilene airport reported 4 inches in 2 hours. This rainfall produced flooding of low water crossings and some creek flooding during the morning in Abilene. Worse flooding was yet to come however, as the heaviest rains occurred to the south of Abilene,…

3. Aug 2, 2007Flash Flood$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flooding was reported along Cedar Creek. Water entered homes along FM1750. Water entered approximately 10 homes and washed out several roads.

4. May 18, 2019Tornado$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   This tornado began on the southeast corner of Dyess Air Force Base and damaged some roofs and destroyed a shed. The tornado moved northeast towards Abilene and impacted several residential neighborhoods on both sides of the Winters Freeway located on the west side of Abilene. It damaged many roofs, blew out windows, uprooted trees and damaged tree limbs. The tornado strengthened to an EF-2 as it crossed South 6th street, completely removing several roofs from residential homes. According to the City of Abilene, about 390 homes were affected. Of these homes, about 336 homes had minor roof damage, 46 homes had major damage and eight homes were destroyed by the tornado.

5. Feb 15, 2021Cold/Wind Chill, Taylor$7.8 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Wind chill temperatures ranged from -10 to -17 degrees. During this time, there was a period of extreme wind chill temperatures. The extended cold weather damaged public utility systems infrastructure and buildings.

6. Aug 18, 2007Flood$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Excessive rainfall from heavy rains Friday night into Saturday morning across southwest Taylor County caused water to spill over the main spillway at Lake Abilene. This water flowed into Elm Creek and flooded several streets, homes, and businesses in the City of Abilene Sunday morning, prompting the Abilene Emergency Operations Center to call for a mandatory evacuation of the affected locations.

7. May 30, 2001Hail$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Baseball size hail pounded the eastern sections of Abilene. The area around Abilene Christian University was the hardest hit, with numerous windows broken at the school. Many vehicles were hard hit as well, with windshields broken out and holes punched through the roofs of convertibles.

8. Jun 12, 2014Hail$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A report of large hail measured at 4.5 inches was received from the Severe Hazards Analysis and Verification Experiment affiliated with the National Severe Storms Laboratory. The vicious hail storm struck during the Abilene Art Walk children���s parade. The Taylor County Sheriff���s Office reported up to a dozen people were treated for various injuries. About six of the injured were parade-goers who experienced minor head injuries from the hailstones. Substantial damage was reported in downtown Abilene and on the city���s east side. Forty-eight Abilene patrol cars were heavily damaged. The Abilene Fire Department shut down Fire Station 4 at 1909 W. Stamford St.…

9. Jul 12, 1998Thunderstorm Wind$3.3 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Winds estimated at 105 mph did extensive damage across Dyess AFB. Several buildings suffered extensive roof damage and 3 airplanes were damaged.

10. Jun 16, 1997Thunderstorm Wind$2.0 million
    National Weather Service narrative

    A wind gust to 52 knots (60 mph) was recorded at the Abilene Municipal Airport at 1702 CST but wind gusts to 70 to 80 mph were reported throughout the city of Abilene. Many trees were uprooted and there was considerable roof damage. Power was lost for several thousand customers.

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

113°FAug 21, 2024

All-time low

−7°F2 times, most recently Dec 23, 1989

Warmest night

84°F3 times, most recently Aug 8, 2023

Coldest day

11°FFeb 1, 1985

Wettest day

8.26 inJul 7, 2015

Snowiest day

9.8 inFeb 14, 2021

Hottest year

2024mean 68.7°F

Coldest year

1976mean 62.0°F

Wettest year

201540.40 in

Driest year

19569.78 in

Snowiest season

18.8 in2020-21

Station Abilene Regional Airport (USW00013962), 1,787 ft elevation, 5.0 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1948 to October 26, 2026; 99.9% 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 USW00013962.
• 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.